An exercise to gather data on the person in the area to establish their poverty levels, which is a requirement for the programme, has started in Ahomahomasu in the Fanteakwa District where more than 9,000 residents from over 15 communities are to be registered for free.

Officials of the National health Insurance Authority are expected to use three weeks to gather database of the residents for vetting before those who qualify per the criteria, are registered free of charge for the health insurance.

Funded by the IFC-World Bank, Marie Stopes International and Pharmaccess group, the pilot initiative is will cover 10 districts across the country. The Eastern Region is the third region after Upper West and Greater Accra regions.

The NHIA Head of Eastern Regional Operations, Collins Akuamuah , explains the two districts were chosen based on the statistics from the Ghana Living Standard  Survey which suggest several residents in the two districts are poor.

Farming is the mainstay of the people in the two districts, and many are them are unable to raise the registration fee to enroll on the health insurance which would give them free access to healthcare.

The Fanteakwa District Chief Executive, Abass Saabe, was optimistic the initiative would go along way to make health care accessible to the marginalized as part of governments agenda.

Residents, especially the women, were happy about the intervention and commended the sponsors for their gesture

The Fanteakea NHIA District Manager Dan Alorgbey,  urged residents to be honest in providing information to have a credible data.

By Yvonne Neequaye|tv3network.com|Ghana