Mankranso (Ash), Nov 4, GNA - The Ahafo-Ano South District Assembly is sponsoring a 39-year-old father of five, Paa Tei, who scored aggregate 11 at this year's Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) to the Asanteman Secondary School in Kumasi. The assembly will pay one million cedis every year as school fees and other expenses for the student and promised to sponsor him to the highest level of education.

Mr Kwaku Obeng Boateng, the District Chief Executive, announced this at the first general meeting of the assembly at Mankranso on Monday.

Addressing the assembly, he said as at the end of September this year, the assembly had collected 503.141 million cedis out of its targeted revenue of 970.153 million cedis from internally generated revenue.

Mr Boateng said the assembly also received a total of 2.582 billion cedis for the first and second quarters of the year as part of its allocation of 5.852 billion cedis of its share of the common fund. With the introduction of the capitation grant, he said, government has released an amount of 293.874 million cedis as part-payment to cover 252,091 pupils in the district.

The DCE said with the payment of this amount, there was therefore no excuse whatsoever for parents not to send their wards and children to school.

On the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Mr Boateng said 10,867 people have so far registered with the scheme and 270 million cedis premium has so far been paid.

He said the government gave the assembly an initial subvention of 142 million cedis towards the scheme and that so far about 300 million cedis had been paid as claims to service providers.

Mr Nicholas Afriyie, the Presiding Member, appealed to the assembly members to assist revenue collectors in the performance of their duties and also asked all those who have not as yet registered with the health insurance scheme to do so to enable them have quality health service.