MTWARA Regional Commissioner Col. Patrick Sawala yesterday called on district administrative secretaries and social welfare officers in Lindi, Mtwara, and Ruvuma regions to promote will-writing among residents to avoid disputes amongst heirs.

Opening a training for district administrative secretaries and social welfare officer from southern regions, Col. Sawala said that the session was aimed at enhancing officials' skills in managing public services related to among others, inheritance, marriage and divorce, provided by the Registration, Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency (RITA).

 “One of the main reasons for conflicts within families is failure by some parents to write will due to false belief that doing so welcomes death,” he said, adding that writing a will is not predicting or welcoming death since many people who wrote their wills a long time ago are  still alive.

He urged the officials to educate the public on the importance of writing a will, advice and assist them in drafting will to avoid unnecessary conflicts in the society.

He also advised residents to find means of self-sustenance rather than relying on inheritance, as this would help reduce conflicts.

He noted that the introduction of online service system (eRITA) would allow citizens to submit applications for services digitally without having to visit RITA offices, thereby broadening service accessibility and reaching more residents.

“I urge RITA to intensify efforts in educating the public so that more people can apply for services through this system,” he said.

Frank Kanyusi, RITA chief executive officer, said the agency has established a routine of organizing such training sessions and meetings for various stakeholder groups to provide education and discuss strategies to improve efficiency in serving the public.

“The training provided has empowered our service providers, especially in areas of birth, death, marriage, divorce, and trusteeship registration. Additionally, the training highlights the importance of statistics, which is crucial for economic planning by providing real-time need assessments and facilitating future projections,” he said.

Kanyusi added that the training was given to the leaders because the Births and Deaths Registration Act designates district administrative secretary as the district registrar, making them directly responsible for birth, death, and marriage registrations, as well as monitoring and collecting divorce information in their areas.

He further elaborated that social welfare officers also received the training as they coordinate and manage registration programmes for children under the age of five.

Mariam Nkumbwa, Coordinator of Child Registration Programme (under five years) in the President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Government) said that the training was expected to improve registration process and data entry in the registration system.