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The NHIA has upgraded its system for identifying the poor to an electronic platform which makes indigent targeting and registration more scientific and evidence-based.

The new electronic system minimizes the element of human arbitrariness and discretion in identifying who is classified a poor person and therefore eligible for free NHIS registration and enlistment onto other government social protection programs.

Under this system, enumerators are sent out into the communities in particular districts to assess the poverty levels of households.

The enumerators take the households through prepared standardized questions on a personal digital assistant (PDA) after which an assessment score, indicating their eligibility or otherwise is generated.

If a household qualifies, chits are issued to the entire household for free NHIS registration.

The enumeration system is linked with a complex but informative and interactive dashboard at the backend which provides administrators of the scheme real time information on the activities, location and speed of the enumerators.

According to the Chief Executive of the NHIA, Nathaniel Otoo, once information from the field is inputted into the PDAs, validation of the data is done in real time, which reduces system gaming to almost zero.

The GPS-enabled system affords the NHIA an opportunity to see where each of the enumerators in a particular district are.      

The system has been developed based on the poverty targeting guidelines from the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and is part of efforts to have a common poverty targeting tool for all social protection programs in the country.

So far, ten districts across the country in Ashanti, Greater Accra, Volta, Upper East and Eastern are benefiting from the new system at varying stages.

“The NHIA has a plan to incrementally cover all districts in the country with this identification system,” Mr Otoo said.