The NHIA has upgraded its system for identifying the poor to an electronic platform which makes indigent targeting and registration more scientific and evidence-based.

The new electronic system minimizes the element of human arbitrariness and discretion in identifying who is classified a poor person and therefore eligible for free NHIS registration and enlistment onto other government social protection programs.

Under this system, enumerators are sent out into the communities in particular districts to assess the poverty levels of households. The enumerators take the households through prepared standardized questions on a personal digital assistant (PDA) after which an assessment score, indicating their eligibility or otherwise is generated. If a household qualifies, chits are issued to the entire household for free NHIS registration.

The enumeration system is linked with a complex but informative and interactive dashboard at the backend which provides administrators of the scheme real time information on the activities, location and speed of the enumerators.

According to the Chief Executive of the NHIA, Nathaniel Otoo, once information from the field is inputted into the PDAs, validation of the data is done in real time, which reduces system gaming to almost zero.

The GPS-enabled system affords the NHIA an opportunity to see where each of the enumerators in a particular district are.

The system has been developed based on the poverty targeting guidelines from the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and is part of efforts to have a common poverty targeting tool for all social protection programs in the country.

So far, ten districts across the country in Ashanti, Greater Accra, Volta, Upper East and Eastern are benefiting from the new system at varying stages. “The NHIA has a plan to incrementally cover all districts in the country with this identification system,” Mr Otoo said.

The system is certainly cost-effective as it ensures that the rightly qualified persons as much as possible are those benefiting from the NHIS and other government social intervention programs.

The new approach to identifying the core poor promises to address concerns that coverage of the poor under the NHIS is low and arbitrary.

This initiative was showcased in October, 2015 when President John Mahama together with the World Bank President, Dr. Jim Yong Kim launched the “Poverty in a Rising Africa” report at Mantse Agbonaa in Accra.

According to the report, a better measurement of poverty was needed, because data gaps made it extremely difficult for policy-makers to target programs for the poor.

Indeed, the ongoing review of the NHIS instituted by His Excellency, the President of the Republic, among other things is seeking to make the NHIS more pro-poor than it is currently, and the introduction of this electronic platform will go a long way to improve targeting and indigent identification and registration.

The project is being undertaken with technical support from the Health in Africa Initiative of the World Bank Group.