The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has won yet another prestigious award. The IMANI Centre for Policy & Education cited the NHIA for its 2014 top award at a ceremony at Alisa Hotel, Ridge, in Accra on the 27th of November, 2014. The keynote address was delivered by the British High Commissioner in Ghana.

Over the last five years one of IMANI’s flagship projects is to critically assess public sector organizations and award leadership of best-performing organizations using such indices as efficiency, productivity as well as integrity in public office. Its award to the NHIA on such merits is therefore significant.

This year, according to IMANI, the NHIA earned the top award for executing its important mandate, including ensuring equity in health care coverage and utilizing innovative solutions in the effort to provide financial access to healthcare for the poor and vulnerable in Ghana.

The citations reads:

“For remaining true to your mandate to ensure equity in health care coverage, access by the poor to health care services and protection of the poor and vulnerable against financial risk; swift and effective changes made to operations to enhance service delivery before and after the introduction of Biometric Health Insurance Cards ”.

This award adds to citations from the United Nations (WHO & UNDP) and other organizations, as well as a positive World Bank assessment report.

This latest award comes at a time when the NHIA is successfully implementing initiatives to improve efficiency in the scheme and secure its long-term viability with the goal of Universal Health Coverage in focus.

The IMANI Center for Policy and Education, a think-tank and research Institute of local and international repute, is dedicated to the promotion of the institutions of a free society throughout Africa. IMANI has been consistently ranked among the top 10 think tanks in Africa and among the top 100 worldwide, out of a pool of nearly 10,000 organizations, by the prestigious University of Pennsylvania, which ranks the world’s largest and most prestigious think tank research program.