Marriage Registration

THE Chief Personnel and Marriage Officer of the Registrar-General’s Department, Mr J. Akufo Kisiedu, has expressed concern over the abuse of the law by some people who register marriages based on contracts to enable them to process their documents.
He said about 70 per cent of marriages registered by the department “are contract based”, explaining that most young people registered their marriages in order to use the certificates to process their documents, after which the marriages were dissolved.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, Mr Kisiedu explained conditions under which the department registered marriages, including the fact that the would-be couple should be of sound mind, 18 and above and not engaged or married to other persons.
He expressed concern over the rate at which unplanned marriages were impacting negatively on the lives of young men and women and said most of such marriages resulted in domestic violence.
Mr Kisiedu said 1,821 marriages were registered during the last half of 2008, while 550 were registered within the period of January to date.
Asked if a person could register his/her marriage twice with the department, he answered in the affirmative and explained that, “provided the first marriage is dissolved, you can re-register your marriage with another person” and indicated that. “The law requires couples to file a notice which has a life-span of 90 days”.
According to him, the department registers about 10 marriages a day in the lean seasons and about 30 during festive occasions.
Amount charged for marriage registration ranges between GH¢10 which is issued by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to GH¢50 for Special Marriage Licences from the Registrar General’s Department which is reviewed under the Legislative Instrument (LI) by Parliament.
He said while marriages between would-be couples aged above 40 years as real, a number of marriages between those below that age were contract based.