The National Registration Bureau (NRB) says introduction of mandatory death registration in the country will assist medical researchers to come up with mechanisms to deal with pandemics and other diseases as issuing of deaths certificates will bring about clear and accurate data on the trends.
NRB Principal Registration Officer and Data Manager Responsible for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Rodrick Langwe was speaking in Mzimba when the Bureau made a revelation to Executive Members of M’mbelwa District Council on its plans to start issuing deaths certificates in the district.
“We are looking at the death certificate and the data that we are collecting, the death certificate is the proof that somebody has died so whatever you want to process especially the deceased estates you need the death certificate they cannot process pension and if the deceased money in bank account that can only be processed if one has death certificate and if there is a proof that he has died.
“Secondly, and most importantly we are doing medical certification because of death. These documents tell us what is killing our people, what disease is killing our people and if we know that we are able to locate the source accordingly. We also know if a disease is mostly killing under five children, females or males,” said Langwe.
NRB also started registering newly born babies from 2019.
