Company launches health Insurance for sheanut pickers

Kasalgu, (N/R), July 17, GNA - Coastal Scents Company, a bath and beauty product manufacturer, with Sekaf Ghana Limited, has launched a GH14,000 Health Insurance Project to annually pay the National Health Insurance levy for 1500 sheanut pickers and processors.

The implementation of the scheme, would help the women who are engaged in shea butter processing in the Sekaf Shea Butter Village Project at Kasalgu, a farming community near Tamale to have access to free and affordable and quality medical care.

Mr. Senyo Kpelly, the Managing Director of Sekaf Ghana Limited, who launched the scheme in Kasalgu, on Friday, said it was part of the social responsibility programme of the Company towards improving the welfare of the community.

He said Coastal Scents of America, based in Florida, had appointed the African Turning Point Foundation, Ghana, an NGO that works in the areas of health and secure livelihoods, to manage and administer the health insurance project for the sheanut pickers.

He said Sekaf Ghana Limited had instituted a Sekaf Fair Trade policy, which allowed the Company to sell its raw materials and finished products mainly to business organisations that were prepared to plough back some of their products into the rural communities that supplied them with the raw materials.

This is to raise their standard of living.

He said Sekaf Ghana Limited was improving the situation of the women through the provision of education, infrastructural development and access to affordable medical care.

Mr. Mohammed Abdul-Salam, Tamale Metropolitan Health Insurance Manager, called on the people to register with the National Health Insurance Scheme and reminded them to also regularly renew their premiums to enable them to continue to enjoying free and affordable health care.

Dr. Richard Opoku, Chief Executive Officer of God Cares Community Clinic, urged pregnant women to regularly attend antenatal clinics to check their health status to ensure that they do not get any complications which could adversely affect their safe delivery.