A 17 member board of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) was inaugurated in Accra to give strategic direction, good governance, and sound management practices to support the operations of the Authority.

The board is to devise innovative ways of mobilizing financial resources to improve the performance of the sector.

The board has Mr. Emmanuel Ernest Kwasie as the Chairman.

Other members are Dr Victor Asare Bampoe, Ministry of Health, Mr. Sylvester Mensah, Chief Executive Officer of NHIA, Mr Seth Ofori Ohene and Ms Rejoice Kasu from NHIA, Dr Ebenezer Kofi Appiah-Denkyira, Director General of Ghana Health Service, Dr Dennis Bortelabi Bortey, the Medical and Dental profession and Mr. Anthony Selom Dzadzra, Ministry of Finance.

Others include Mr Sodzi Sodzi-Tetteh, and Mr William Affum Ani-Agyei, from Health professional, Mr Eric Armo-Himbson, Acting Chief Director, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Miss Lydia Lariba Bawa, Commissioner of Insurance and Mr Daniel Owusu-Koranteng from Organized Labour.

The rest are Mrs. Czarina Baeta Ribeiro from the Pharmacist professionals, Dr Darius Kofi Osei from Social Security and National Insurance Trust, Mrs. Anna Pearl Akiwumi Siriboe, a legal practitioner and Mr. Arnold Okai from the Accountancy and Finance Profession.

Dr Kwaku Agyemang-Mensah, Minister of Health, inaugurating the board urged them to work diligently and selflessly to turn round the fortunes of the authority which will in turn translate in the improvement of health service delivery.

He said the authority is charged with providing quality and affordable services to the citizens and ensures access to basic health care services in the country.

Dr Agyemang-Mensah said the Ministry and its agencies are guided in their operations by the four- year sector medium plan which covers 2014 to 2017.

He noted that the programme of work for 2014 which is teased out from this strategic document has the theme: “Working together towards quality healthcare for all in Ghana”, focuses on accelerating the achievement of the MDGs four, five and six as well as quality health care and sanitation.

The Minister said the country is confronted with the Ebola scare and cholera epidemic, which is a result of poor personal hygiene and environmental sanitation, and urged the board to join the Ministry to send the message to the public on the preventive measures to combat the spread of these diseases.

“The Ministry has put in place an efficient and effective surveillance system in preparedness to manage the Ebola disease in an advert of a real case detection, adding that education is ongoing to create awareness on the prevention of the Ebola disease while training of zonal teams on its management,” he said.

Mr Kwasie on behalf of the board members thanked government for the confidence reposed in them and promise to work assiduously to bring the appropriate solutions to improve the health sector.