Koforidua, Dec. 21, GNA - The New Juaben Municipal Health Insurance Scheme (MHIS) is to be launched on January 14, next year, with 65,000 registered subscribers and 115 million cedis premiums so far collected. The New Juaben Municipal Chief Executive, Nana Akwasi Adjei Boateng, who announced this at Koforidua on Tuesday, said the scheme had 3,550 formal sector Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) contributors, 1,000 fully-paid and 100 partly paid informal sector subscribers.

In a Sessional Address to the First Meeting of the Third Session of the Municipal Assembly, he said there were 44,000 registered dependants and 2,000 over-70-year-olds to enjoy from the scheme.

According to him, photographs of subscribers were being taken for Identification(ID) cards while discussions were going on with potential service providers as a prelude to signing of contracts with them for the commencement of the scheme.

Nana Adjei-Boateng said the government was very committed to the success of the scheme and determined to get it started without delay and urged the assemblymembers to educate the people in their areas to embrace the scheme now and eschew the "wait-and-see" attitude.

On revenue mobilization, he noted that the Assembly's revenue had over-depended on inflows from the Central Government, saying, this year, while the Assembly was expected to receive 8.60 billion cedis from the Central Government, the Assembly had so far raised 3.37 billion cedis out of a targeted 4.09 billion from local revenue as at November 30. He reminded them that the non-attainment of the assembly's revenue targets must be of serious concern to all members as they face greater demands and challenges.

Nana Adjei-Boateng, therefore, called for discipline and greater commitment by revenue collectors, strengthening of supervision, vigorous and sustained public education and greater collaboration among assemblymebers and Zonal Councils in revenue mobilization efforts. On the New Juaben Garment project, he announced that the Assembly had so far raised 404 million cedis of its 500-million-cedi share, while contributions from prospective shareholders were expected to set the project on course.

Nana Adjei-Boateng, whose four-year term of office had reached the terminal point, commended the assemblymembers for their co-operation and urged them to support the government's policy initiatives through local resource mobilization instead of "just presenting a catalogue of needs for the assembly to provide."