The Korea Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to implement a policy corporation agreement to position Ghana as the hub of Universal Coverage (UHC) in Africa.
The project includes the development of a Research Policy and Agenda to guide research into the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) issues in order to identify strategies to improve on the operations of the Scheme towards the attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by the year 2030.
It also comprises implementation of a Health Insurance Knowledge Sharing Programme (HIKSP) that seeks to develop the capacity of NHIA staff, credentialed health care providers and staff of the private health insurance industry to enable them to support the UHC agenda of NHIA and Ghana government.
Sister African countries will also be given the opportunity to benefit from the experience of Ghana at the training centre.
The 3rd leg of the project is the Expert Dispatch which will see experts in health insurance management from Korea coming to Ghana to share their experience with their Ghanian counterparts and also Ghanaian experts going to other sister African countries to support their health insurance improvement project under the sponsorship of KOFIH.
The NHIA’s immediate past Director of Administration and currently a Consultant to the Chief Executive and Executive Management, Dr. Francis-Xavier Andoh Adjei, is the NHIA-KOFIH Project Lead.
Dr. Chang-Bae Chun, Assistant Professor from Korea is currently on a 3-month mission to partner his Ghanian counterpart Dr. Andoh-Adjei to support the project.
A delegation from the Korea National Health Insurance System (NHIS) on January 31, 2023, paid a working visit to the NHIA head office in Accra as part of the monitoring of the implementation of the project and also to understand the training needs of staff of NHIA for invitational training program in Korea.
The NHIA Chief Executive, Dr. Okoe Boye said the Authority and KOFIH’s partnership remained a critical turning point in Ghana’s UHC journey.
He emphasized that the Authority would continue to tap from the Korea UHC achievement experience to add onto the NHIS future strategies.
According to him, the NHIA plays a critical role in Ghana Government’s mission to ensure that all residents in Ghana will receive affordable and quality health benefits.
Dr. Francis-Xavier Andoh Adjei gave an overview of the NHIS journey and stated that the Scheme is a social contract between successive governments and all residents of Ghana.
He said the NHIS, since inception went through several reforms and disclosed that it could boast of 54 percent coverage of active membership, ending the year 2022.
Background
KOFIH was established in 2006 as a public agency affiliated to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea to honor the late Dr. Lee Jong-Wook (6th Director General of the WHO).
Since then, the foundation has provided government-level healthcare assistance for developing partner countries, North Korea, overseas Koreans, migrant workers residing in Korea, and people in disaster-stricken areas across the globe.
KOFIH has since its establishment put considerable efforts to play its role commensurate with the raised reputation of Korea in the international community.
The foundation has also provided specialized and systematic support to cope with healthcare issues in developing partner countries.
Source: Abdul Karim Naatogmah
