Thousands of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) ID card holders in Agona East and Agona West Administrative Areas of the Central Region have embraced the new card renewal system with enthusiasm.

A survey conducted by the Ghana News Agency indicate that, the system, which was introduced in the area recently, has drastically reduced the huge number of NHIS ID card bearers, who troop to the Agona Swedru area office of the NHIA daily to renew their expired cards, following the huge patronage of the new online registration system.

Besides helping to cut down the mounting daily workloads of the scheme workers, the new renewal system has also gone a long way to save precious time and money, as clients living in the remote parts of the two administrative areas do not need to travel long distances to renew their expired cards.

Interacting with some of the beneficiaries of the Online ID card renewal at Agona Nyakrom, Agona Bobikuma, Agona – Nsaba, Agona-Kwanyako and Agona-Asafo,, the clients expressed their appreciation to the management of the National Health Insurance Authority(NHIA) for their foresight.

Speaking to the GNA later in an interview, as part of the two-day survey, Mr. Isaac Okruw Nelson, Acting Manager of the Agona East and Agona West Area Office of the NHIA, confirmed the outcome of the GNA survey and attributed it to the intensification of public education on the new system by workers of the scheme.

He said since the system was introduced in the area on December 20th, 2018, more than 6,000 NHIS ID card bearers in both the Agona East and the Agona West Administrative Areas had successfully renewed their expired ID cards without any problem.

Mr. Nelson said, shortly after the official launching of the system, management of the branch initiated an intensive education on it in the Towns and villages as well as in the Churches and Mosques, church-to-Church, coupled with series of radio discussions.

He commended the Assemblyman for Agona-Bobikuma, Mr. Oduro Kyeneboah, for using his personal mobile telephone to reactivate the expired cards of hundreds of NHIS ID card bearers in his electoral area free of charge.

Mr. Nelson assured people in the two Agona Administrative areas of the continued co-operation of the NHIA to ensure the success of the new system.

The Acting Manager appealed to Assembly members in both Agona East District and Agona West Municipal Assemblies to emulate their colleague at Agona Bobikuma to ensure the speedy success of the system.

He announced that management of the branch scheme would soon launch a year-long educational programme to register new clients.

Speaking to the GNA on the new system at Winneba-Junction on Monday, a former Public Relations Officer of the NHIA, Mr. Joseph Yaw Owusu Kwarteng also described the new renewal system as “easier, faster and credible, worthy of commendation”.

Mr Owusu-Kwarteng however appealed to the authorities of the NHIA to intensify its public education on the new system, especially in the remote areas of the country.

He advised NHIS ID card bearers, particularly those in the remote areas to strive as much as possible- to embrace the mobile ID card reactivation system to save them from any unexpected and emergency health challenges.

Mr. Owusu-Kwarteng called on municipal and district assembly members in the regions to team up with officials of the NHIA in their operational areas to sensitize the people on the importance of the mobile renewal system to make the policy cost-effective for the nation.