Cameroon government hands over 667M to councils for children’s birth certificate

By Vera Fon

Reports from the National Institute of Statistics as of 2021 revealed that 30 percent of children under the age of 5 are not registered at birth and more than 1.6 million children attended school without a birth certificate. An undesirable situation the convention between the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and the Family and the 21 selected councils seeks to address.

The signing ceremony of the terms of the agreement between the two parties took place on Friday, June 15, 2023, at the Yaounde town hall.

About 26000 children in Cameroon living without birth certificates will soon have the identification document thanks to government support of over 667 million FCFA to the 21 councils in seven regions, to facilitate their enrolment in the civil registry.

Birth certificates in Cameroon are legal proof of identity that helps protect children from violence, abuse, and exploitation.

This government support will help speed up the process of registering ghost children in their respective constituencies free of charge.

The Minister of Women’s Empowerment and the Family, Marie-Thérèse Abena Ondoa in the presence of other members of government instructed the mayors present to ensure that these documents be produced before the start of the new school year.

“It is extremely important to sensitize the parents to do the birth certificates of their children before it becomes financially heavy. We have a lot of children without birth certificates. As the Ministry of Woman Empowerment and the Family, we have to make sure that every child born within a family has legal existence and we want to support those councils because without a birth certificate, a child cannot take an official exam,” Minister Marie-Thérèse stated.

The agreement is part of the commemoration of the 33rd day of the African Child on June 16, 2023