Kumasi, Aug 10, GNA - A total of 66,492 persons in the informal sector have paid their premiums for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in Ashanti.

Dr Joseph Bonney, Ashanti Regional Co-ordinator of the Scheme, who disclosed this, said, however, that the figure was on the low side considering the population of the Region, which was about four million. Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi on Wednesday on the response towards the Scheme, he said although a lot of public education was going on about its importance and the need for people to register, a lot of people were not showing interest in the Scheme, which he said had come to stay.

Dr Bonney said unlike the informal sector, registration was very brisk in the formal sector as the various ministries and departments already had data on their workers.

He said the Kumasi metropolis alone had registered over 7,800 workers from the formal sector as against 4,680 from the informal sector.

Dr Bonney said new registration centres would soon be opened to pave the way for many more people to register and that the Scheme had become operational in five districts and would be operational in many more of the districts by the middle of August, this year.