North West : Free Civil Status Registration Campaign Launched

The Office of the Public Independent Conciliator for the North West Region, on Thursday September 21, 2023 launched a three-month campaign to promote free civil status registration namely; birth, marriage certificates and also certificate of death. The campaign to be carried out simultaneously on the media and all the 35 Council areas in the region was launched through a Pidgin English programme on a local radio station in Bamenda and already saw resistance from some Mayors who reacted to the interactive radio programme claiming the charges they ask emanate from the deliberations of the Council sessions.
According to Ndi Nelson Ngayinkufu, Research Officer No. 1 at the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator, the campaign is as a result of their findings on the field and complaints received from citizens who say “some Mayors ask for as much as FCFA 100,000 for the establishment of marriage certificates and as much as FCFA 20,000 for the establishment of birth certificates”. This is a violation of the law, he said, adding that if Mayors want to levy the establishment of civil status documents, they should go back to the legislator and seek an amendment of the law.
 A view corroborated by the Regional Chief of BUNEC for the North West Region, Levi Fongen Neba, clarifying that the establishment of birth certificates within three months of birth of the child is free but beyond that age, one has to go by Court judgment and this implies legal fees. ‘The only problem is the fees vary from one Court to another. So there is need to harmonize the Court charges,’ he said
The campa...