The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, has rounded off her five-day tour of the three regions in the north, during which 2,400 elderly persons in the regions, were freely registered onto the National Health Insurance Scheme.
Her visit to Wa in the Upper West Region saw 500 elderly men and women benefiting from the free registration exercise in addition to the 600 registered in the Northern Region and a further 1,300 registered in the Upper East Region.
The free registration exercise would enable the beneficiaries – who are aged 65 and above – to access medical care under the NHIS free of charge.
Continuation of exercise
While the event was only symbolic, the minister said the free registration exercise would continue at the district and local offices of the National Health Insurance Authority to extend the gesture to more elderly persons aged 65 years and above.
The colourful ceremony held at the forecourt of the Wa Naa’s Palace also saw the elderly persons, who benefited from the programme and a number of schoolchildren, receiving assorted items – including pieces of clothes for the elderly and stationery for the schoolchildren – as special present to them, to mark a new year.
Across the country, the ministry had undertaken similar exercises to provide access to health care for poor and vulnerable persons, including 6,000 prison inmates.
Concerns of aged
Nana Lithur said the mandate of her ministry included making the concerns of the aged a part of the government’s development agenda through the use of social protection interventions to achieve national development.
As part of that effort, she said the ministry had begun rolling out the Elderly Welfare cards programme which would enable elderly persons to get priority access in banking halls, hospitals, and 50 per cent discount for the use of Metro Mass Transit buses, with over 9,500 cards issued to elderly persons in Central, Western, Volta, Eastern and Greater Accra regions.
Extension of facility
The facility, she said, would be extended to Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions by the middle of 2016.
The minister extolled the social democratic credentials of the ruling National Democratic Congress Government, and said, further support to elderly persons of 65 years and above, under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme was ample proof.
The Chief Executive of the Wa Municipal Assembly, Nuhu Putiaha, speaking on behalf of the regional minister, said the state’s intervention for the elderly was most welcome in Upper West on account of the high poverty level in the region.
