courtesy of the Daily Observer

Malanding

http://observer.gm/africa/article/new-software-for-birth-registration-unit


  New software for Birth Registration Unit

<http://observer.gm/africa/article/new-software-for-birth-registration-unit#map>africa 
<http://observer.gm/africa/news> » gambia 
<http://observer.gm/africa/gambia/news>
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Abubacarr Sillah, a young Gambian software engineer and programmer, and 
Gibril Jassey, both based in the United Kingdom, last Friday presented 
some software and equipment worth over D1.3m to Aja Dr Isatou 
Njie-Saidy, vice president and secretary of state for Women’s Affairs, 
at her office at State House in Banjul.

The software has the capacity to take care of the entire birth and death 
registration and certification details of the whole country, and it is 
earmarked for the Birth Registration Unit of the Department of State for 
Health and Social Welfare. The system, according to the engineer, is 
user friendly and can run either on a standalone computer or on a 
network environment. It can also support the decentralisation of birth 
and death registrations without compromising consistency and efficiency. 
The system, among other things, will enable the unit to control the data 
redundancy and consistency and provide data security as well as instant 
accessibility of data, when and where necessary.

Speaking at the ceremony, Abubacarr Sillah said he and his counterpart 
jointly did this as part of their own contribution to nation building. 
He said they were inspired by the work of President Jammeh who is 
dedicated and committed to transforming The Gambia into a beacon of hope 
and seat of technology in Africa. According to him, the donation was as 
a result of his visit to The Gambia in 2004, when he went to the Birth 
Registration Unit to get a replacement for a lost birth certificate. 
"All that they had to do was to manually go through the files to 
retrieve my particulars," he said.

Sillah added that some of them abroad are convinced beyond all 
reasonable doubt that the country under the leadership of President 
Jammeh is well on course to industrialisation. Lamin Fatty, deputy head 
of the Birth Registration Unit, gave a brief overview of the current 
status of the unit. According to him, the process of birth registering 
in The Gambia started way back in 1819. He said over the years, it has 
been very difficult to maintain the records, because of the materials 
and nature of storage facilities they have at their disposal as well as 
the demand from the public.

The government, he added, is trying very hard to make sure that the 
birth registration system is revitalised, citing the integration of 
birth registration into the RCH, which makes the system more accessible 
to people. According to Fatty, the government recently registered about 
40,000 births. "This shows that they want the registration to be at the 
doorsteps of all Gambians," he said, revealing further that plans are 
also in place, both at the national and international level, from birth 
to death, and that there will be only one identification number for each 
individual to ensure that there is a unique identity number. For her 
part, Vice President Aja Dr Isatou Njie-Saidy described the gesture as 
generous, adding that it will go a long way in complementing the efforts 
of the government.

According to her, the Gambian leader puts health high on his priorities 
towards achieving the Vision 2020 goals. She further spoke of the 
achievements registered in various sectors under the administration of 
Professor Jammeh, saying that the present administration has since its 
inception sent a good number of students for overseas studies.

She further spoke of the importance of ICT, which she said is critical, 
noting that the Gambian leader has introduced the Science and Technology 
Academy in Kanilai. The ceremony was chaired by Dr Tamsir Mbow, chief 
medical director, RVTH, and director of the Presidential Treatment 
Programme.
Author: *by Musa Ndow*

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