A birth registered late - and a great many Ghanaian adults register for the first time when they need a passport - needs a statutory declaration of the facts of the birth, alongside whatever evidence from the time still exists. The Births and Deaths Registry will ask for both.

This template is for a parent or relative declaring a birth they know about. There are notes below for declaring your own.

The template

                 REPUBLIC OF GHANA

               STATUTORY DECLARATION

I, ___________________________________________
[full name, exactly as on your Ghana Card]

of ___________________________________________
   ___________________________________________
[house number, street and town]

Digital address:   ___________________________
Ghana Card No:     GHA-___________________-___
Occupation:        ___________________________

a citizen of Ghana, do solemnly and sincerely
declare as follows:

1.  That I am the declarant herein.

2.  That I am the _____________________________
    [mother / father / grandmother / uncle ...]
    of ________________________________________
    [full name of the person whose birth it is]

3.  That the said person was born on
    ____ / ____ / ________ at
    ___________________________________________
    [hospital, clinic or house, and town]
    in the ____________________________ Region.

4.  That the person's father is
    ___________________________________________
    and the person's mother is
    ___________________________________________

5.  That I know these facts because
    ___________________________________________
    ___________________________________________
    [e.g. I am the mother; I was present at
    the birth; I attended the naming ceremony]

6.  That the birth was not registered within
    the time allowed because
    ___________________________________________

7.  That I make this declaration in support of
    an application to register the birth at the
    Births and Deaths Registry, and for all
    other lawful purposes.

AND I make this solemn declaration conscientiously
believing the same to be true, and by virtue of
the Statutory Declarations Act, 1971 (Act 389).

DECLARED at ___________________________
this ______ day of ____________________ 20____


                     _____________________________
                     DECLARANT


BEFORE ME


_____________________________
COMMISSIONER FOR OATHS

Filling it in

Paragraph 5 is the one the Registry reads most closely. A declaration is only as strong as the declarant’s reason for knowing. A mother, or someone who was at the birth or the naming ceremony, is far better than a relative who heard about it later.

Paragraph 6 is a plain fact, not an apology - “the birth took place at home and nobody went to register it” is enough.

Bring the evidence the declaration is backed by: a baptismal or naming-ceremony record, a weighing card, a school admission register. Anything from the time carries more weight than anything written this week.

Declaring your own birth

You cannot know your own date of birth first hand, so a declaration by a parent or an older relative is stronger. If nobody who was there is alive or reachable, declare it yourself and change paragraph 5 to say where your knowledge comes from - “my late mother told me, and it is recorded in my baptismal certificate dated …” - rather than claiming to know it.

Do not sign it before you get there

The Commissioner for Oaths is witnessing your signature. Print it, take it unsigned with your Ghana Card, and sign it in front of them. A declaration signed at home is handed back.

Layout. This is the form most Commissioners for Oaths in Accra will recognise: your details at the top, numbered statements of fact, and the closing line that you make it believing it to be true. Some registries and law offices prefer their own layout and will retype it, which is fine - the facts are what you are bringing.

Lying in one is an offence. That is what gives a declaration its weight: you are not proving the facts, you are accepting the consequences if they are false. Say only what you know, and where something comes from somebody else, say so.

Birth certificates, and registering late How to swear the declaration Getting a passport