Nandi-Ndaitwah urges parents to register newborns without delay

President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has urged parents to register their newborns without delay, warning that late birth registrations continue to undermine legal identity and national planning.

She was speaking at the official inauguration of the Kavango West Home Affairs Civic Office at Nkurenkuru on Thursday.

The president said the new regional office, opened to bring services closer to residents, is already improving outcomes.

“With the opening of the home affairs office in the region, the rate has risen to 77.1%,” she said, citing the Namibia 2023 Population and Housing Census.

This follows the Kavango West region’s lowest-in-the-country birth registration rate of 67.3%, reported in the Namibia Intercensal Demographic Survey 2016.

While describing the national average birth registration rate of 86.8% as “not bad”, the president stressed that the remaining 13.2% is significant.

“The universal registration is our goal. Legal identity is a right that belongs to every Namibian citizen,” she said.

She identified late birth registration, defined as registration more than 12 months after birth, as a persistent challenge.

“Every child must be registered promptly upon birth,” she said.

“Mothers, do not leave the hospital without registering your baby; absent fathers are no longer an excuse not to register the baby, and you do not need to pay anything.”

Nandi-Ndaitwah outlined government measures to accelerate timely registration, including hospital-based registration offices and a provision allowing mothers to register children under their own surnames when the father is absent.

“The law expressly permits the subsequent insertion of the father’s particulars, and the child’s surname may likewise be amended once the father is available,” she added.

The president also reminded citizens that civil registration and identity management extend beyond birth certificates and identification documents.

“Failure to register marriages, adoptions, deaths and divorces will lead to violations of rights, inheritance disputes, inability to prove marriage for services, and denial of maintenance for children.”

She called for closer coordination between the Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security, marriage officers and the judiciary to achieve full registration of marriages and divorces.

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