The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has launched its ‘underprivileged identification’ system at Adaklu Waya in the Adaklu District of the Volta Region.

The NHIA in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and with support from the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank, Marie-Stopes International and PharmAccess Foundation, will be using a tablet-based technology to identify the poor.

The project is targeting 20,000 people per district, who would be given coupons for free registration when the system, using a questionnaire, certifies an individual as poor.

The poor, under the system would be exempted from paying health insurance premium. Mr Collins Akuamoah, Deputy Director, NHIA said about 2.2 million Ghanaians were ‘core poor’ and that Government was committed to ensuring that they were not left out in the attainment of Universal Health Coverage.

Mr Mawutor Ablo, Director, Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, said people in rural communities contributed a lot to the national economy and needed to be enrolled free of charge.

Mr David Kwei Kanyi, District Coordinating Director, Agotime Ziofe, commended government for the initiative and entreated participants to answer the questionnaires truthfully for a successful exercise.

“We must do more to remove barriers that hinder enrollment of the poor”, he said. The NHIA has registered over 11.2 million people nationwide, representing about 40 per cent of the population since its introduction.