NHIA defends its GH₵250K COVID-19 donation despite backlash
The management of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has defended its controversial donation of GH₵ 250,000 towards the government’s COVID-19 fight.
The authority on Wednesday, April 22, presented a cheque to the newly established COVID-19 Trust Fund, despite its heavy indebtedness to health facilities across the country.
The move by the NHIA immediately sparked outrage among service providers and a section of the public who believed the authority’s gesture was a misplaced priority.
NHIA’s donation came at a time when it was struggling to settle over 12 months claims arrears owed health service providers, worth more than a billion cedis.
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But in an interview on Citi FM, the NHIA hit back at its critics saying it does not channel all of its funds in the payment of claims.
The Manager of Communications and Media Relations of the NHIA, Barima Sarpong said, “We don’t channel all our monies into the payment of claims. It doesn’t work that way. If we entertain this, very soon, we are going to ask why we are paying salaries when we haven’t paid claims… We have been paying claims and we haven’t stopped, so this GHS 250,000 cannot stop our payment of claims”.
In March 2020, President Akufo-Addo set up the national COVID-19 to solicit support from Ghanaians in fighting the virus in Ghana.
He donated three months of his salary to be used as seed money for the fund. In his fifth televised address to the nation on measures taken by the government against COVID-19, the President revealed that the fund had so far accrued GH₵8.7 million.