Two NGOs register 2000 people onto NHIS
Bolgatanga, March 18. GNA - The African Market Baskets and Paku Enterprise, basket exporting organisations, have registered 2000 weavers onto the National Health Insurance Scheme in the Upper East Region.
The beneficiary communities include the Sokabisi, Zorbisi, Serigu, Zaare, Sumbrungu and Yikene where the two organisations had, over the years, empowered the people to go into basket weaving for export to the United States of America.
Apart from the yearly registration and renewal of cards for the basket weavers and the vulnerable people in the communities onto the NHIS, the two organisations also built weaving centres to train the weavers as well as provide them with ready market.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency during the exercise, Mr Steven Karowe, the Chief Executive Officer of the African Market Baskets, said his outfit and the Paku Enterprise had been dealing with the weavers who were mainly women for the past seven years.
He said for that period, his outfit had spent 3.2 million US dollars to register the people onto the NHIS, provide educational materials for basic schools and procured and distributed mosquito nets to the selected communities as part of its corporate social responsibility.
Mr Paul Akurugu, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Paku Enterprise, underscored the need for the Government to pay special attention to the growth of the basket industry since it had a great potential of creating employment, reducing poverty and generating foreign exchange for the country.
He proposed that government could support the basket industry by ensuring that EDIF disbursed funding to support the growth of the industry.
'Without the basket industry in the region, the poverty level would have been worse. My outfit and the African Market Baskets, currently have engaged over 10,000 women and this is improving livelihood in households in the communities,' he said.
He said the basket industry had a potential for helping the people to cope with the effects of climate change and improving upon the food security situation in the region since the area records only four months of rainfall in a year.
Mr Roland Ayine Abane, the Bolgatanga Municipal Manager of the National Health Insurance Scheme, thanked the two organisations for complementing the efforts of the Scheme and said it would help enhance its work.
The chiefs and people of the beneficiary communities, particularly the women groups, lauded the efforts of the two organisations for improving upon the livelihoods of the community members.
'We are most grateful for the African Market Baskets and the Paku Enterprise for supporting us. Through the basket weaving project and the NHIS most of us have been able to cater for our families particularly our children's education,' Mrs Fati Mohamadu, a 46 year old woman, said.
GNA