Manwe, (UW), April 17, GNA - Only eleven people out of a population of two thousand inhabitants in Manwe, a community in the Wa East district have so far registered under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

This was made known in a speech read for the Manwe Naa, at a function addressed by the Member of Parliament for the area on Thursday.

Mr. Godfrey Tangu, MP for Wa East expressed his displeasure at the low patronage of the scheme and appealed to his constituents and other Ghanaians who have not yet registered with the scheme to do so without further delay.

Mr. Tangu pointed out that the advantage of accessing the NHIS as a registered member was enjoying health care delivery instead of making cash payment for treatments. He said for instance, while a scheme member could attend health institution ones or twice a year with his 72,000 cedis premium, a non-member was likely to pay far more than the cost of the premium if he/she happens to attend hospital twice in a year. The MP, urged registered scheme members to be prepared to cultivate the practice of making annual renewals of their membership as the surest way of guaranteeing medical treatments for them and their dependants. Mr. Tangu also advised parents to take advantage of the capitation grant, which allows children to attend school up to the Junior Secondary School level free of charge to send their children to school. He reminded parents that education provides opportunity for hidden talents in children to be unearthed and developed for the good of society.

At the function, Mr. Tangu received educational materials worth 7.5 million cedis donated by the association of Ghanaians in Minnesota, United States for distribution to some selected basic schools in the Wa East district.

Mr. Tongu expressed his gratitude to a former President of the Association, Alhaji Emmanuel Benson who presented the items on behalf of the Association. The materials included exercise and reading books, pencils, erasers, files, glue and sharpeners.