The Eastern Regional Minister, Rita Akosua Adjei Awatey, has commissioned a 22-seater fibre boat to help the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) reach residents of island communities in the Kwahu Afram Plains North District.
The boat, commissioned at Zikpo Nyuinyui, is expected to improve access to NHIS registration, renewal and other outreach services for residents whose communities are separated from the mainland by the Volta Lake.
Communities including Dwarf Island, Digya Island and Dodi Island are expected to benefit from the intervention, which seeks to address one of the major barriers to public service delivery in the Afram Plains—the difficulty of moving across the lake.
Speaking after the commissioning, Ms Awatey said the intervention would make it easier for NHIS officials to reach residents in hard-to-reach communities and ensure that their location did not become a barrier to accessing essential public services.
“This is an important step towards ensuring that where people live does not become a barrier to accessing public services,” she said.
She said improving mobility across the lake would enable health insurance officials to take registration and renewal services closer to residents, rather than requiring people in remote island communities to undertake difficult journeys to access NHIS offices.
The intervention comes at a time when the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) is intensifying efforts to increase active membership and move closer to universal health coverage.
In April and May 2026, the Authority rolled out the STORM Initiative, a nationwide campaign that temporarily waived NHIS registration and renewal fees and removed the one-month waiting period for new and returning members.
The campaign also deployed NHIA personnel to communities, markets, churches, mosques, lorry parks, schools, workplaces and rural areas to register residents, reflecting a deliberate shift towards taking services directly to potential members.
The Authority has also expanded the use of digital platforms to reduce the need for members to travel to NHIS offices. Members can renew their insurance through the *929# mobile shortcode and the MyNHIS application, while an auto-renewal option is also available.
The push for wider enrolment has gained further urgency following the rollout of the government’s Free Primary Healthcare programme. The NHIA said in July that more than 26 million Ghanaians had been enrolled onto the NHIS, representing about 76 per cent national coverage, with the Authority targeting 80 per cent coverage before the end of 2026.
The NHIA has stressed that active NHIS membership remains important even under Free Primary Healthcare because patients who require referrals to higher-level facilities would need active insurance coverage to avoid paying the full cost of such care.
The Eastern Regional Minister said the boat represented a practical intervention to bridge the geographical gap confronting residents of the Afram Plains islands.
She commended the Kwahu Afram Plains North District Chief Executive, Kate Mawusi Babanawo, the NHIS and other stakeholders whose efforts contributed to the provision of the boat.
The intervention also underscores the growing emphasis on community-based enrolment as the NHIA seeks to ensure that distance, geography and the cost of reaching an NHIS office do not prevent eligible Ghanaians from securing or maintaining active health insurance membership.
For residents of the Afram Plains islands, the expectation is that the boat will turn what has historically been a difficult journey for NHIS officials into a more regular outreach service—and bring the national health insurance system closer to communities that have often been difficult to reach.
Source: www.kumasimail.com
