The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) in the Upper East Region on Tuesday held a sensitization forum to sensitize stakeholders on the electronic renewal system the scheme was piloting.

The innovation, which is yet to be launched on December 19, 2018, is aimed at encouraging clients to register and renew their NHIS cards using their mobile phones.

The NHIA is a social intervention put in place by government to enable citizens get access to quality health care in the country and it has over the 15 years of its implementation covered about 85 per cent of the country’s population.

Speaking at the event, Mr Ben Kusi, the NHIA Director for Membership and Regional Operations, said the NHIA was responsive and committed to resolving issues that served as an inconvenience to its clients and had therefore brought in the electronic renewal system.

Mr Kusi said the Upper East Region was among the eight regions selected to implement the innovation and needed stakeholders to deliberate on it to fully adopt the system to make enrolment and renewals of NHIS cards more convenient for members.

He said the electronic renewal was first piloted in the Asougyaman District of the Eastern Region and later brought to West Mamprusi in the Northern Region and had so far gained positive reactions from the people.

The electronic renewal system is done by dialing *929# and following the necessary options to get enrolled or renew one’s NHIS card and can be done with any mobile phone on all networks by paying through one’s mobile money wallet.

Mr Oswald Essuah- Mensah, the Deputy Director for Corporate Affairs, said the electronic renewal system was expected to be more convenient as it would do away with waiting hours and reduce operational cost.

Mr Mensah called on the media and heads of departments to help educate the public on how to use the electronic renewal system to renew their NHIS cards.

Mr Emmanuel Kona, the Upper East Regional Focal person for NHIA, said the electronic renewal was a good initiative and would ease the difficulties of biometric verification problems that members face at health facilities.