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15th July, 2010
Sekondi Fishermen Reject NHIS
Fishermen at the Albert Busumtwi-Sam Fishing Harbour at Sekondi on Tuesday protested against an attempt by the Sekondi Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA) to register them and their families under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
The fishermen protested vehemently against the exercise when the Sekondi Takoradi Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr. Kobina Pra-Annan arrived at the fishing harbor in the morning to inaugurate the programme to start the registration.
Chanting “Yengye Ntum” (meaning “We won’t agree,”) the fishermen claimed that the exercise was proposed by the Sekondi Landing Beach Committee – a body responsible for the sale and distribution of premix fuel recently, contrary to the agreement that 47 per cent of the proceeds gained from the sale of the premix should be used to pay the committee members while the remaining 53 per cent was to be channeled into developmental projects for the Sekondi community.
The NHIS registration, they said, was not part of the agreement.
The fishermen said that for almost one year now, the committee had never sat down with them to render any account on how much the committee was making on its transaction in respect to the sale of premix.
They said all efforts to bring the committee on board to render account to them had proved futile and therefore the idea to use part of the proceeds from premix to register them under the NHIS of which they (the fishermen) were not aware of “was unacceptable.”
The Secretary of the Sekondi Canoe Owner Association, Mr Joe Eshun complained that, there was no transparency in the work of the committee, stating that the fishermen had no idea how much of the 53 per cent deductions from premix was deposited at the bank.
Indeed, he said, the fishermen did not even know which bank with which the money was deposited.
One of the committee members, Timothy Mensah, in an interview with the Times said, however, that the allegations by the fishermen were untrue.
He said the premix committee was made up of five persons which included the chief fisherman, representatives each from the Canoe Owners Association, Fish Mongers Association, Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA).
Mr. Mensah said that the idea was that the chief fisherman and the representative from the Canoe Owners Association were to convey the information of all meetings to their members and so therefore it was not necessary for the committee to sit down with the fishermen to render account.
He attributed the agitation by the fishermen to “political factionalism”, claiming that it was some NPP members among the fishermen who were spearheading that agenda.
However, when the Times spoke to some of the fishermen on the allegation of the perceived “political factionalism” by some of the committee members, they denied the story and claimed that most of them were NDC members but their aim was to ensure that “the right thing is done.”
The Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr. Kobina Pra-Annan, later entreated the fishermen to accept the programme saying that it was a very important initiative. But despite the several appeals by Mr. Pra-Annan, the fishermen stood their grounds and this compelled the authorities to call for a stakeholders’ meeting to be held at a later date to resolve the impasse.
The fishermen protested vehemently against the exercise when the Sekondi Takoradi Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr. Kobina Pra-Annan arrived at the fishing harbor in the morning to inaugurate the programme to start the registration.
Chanting “Yengye Ntum” (meaning “We won’t agree,”) the fishermen claimed that the exercise was proposed by the Sekondi Landing Beach Committee – a body responsible for the sale and distribution of premix fuel recently, contrary to the agreement that 47 per cent of the proceeds gained from the sale of the premix should be used to pay the committee members while the remaining 53 per cent was to be channeled into developmental projects for the Sekondi community.
The NHIS registration, they said, was not part of the agreement.
The fishermen said that for almost one year now, the committee had never sat down with them to render any account on how much the committee was making on its transaction in respect to the sale of premix.
They said all efforts to bring the committee on board to render account to them had proved futile and therefore the idea to use part of the proceeds from premix to register them under the NHIS of which they (the fishermen) were not aware of “was unacceptable.”
The Secretary of the Sekondi Canoe Owner Association, Mr Joe Eshun complained that, there was no transparency in the work of the committee, stating that the fishermen had no idea how much of the 53 per cent deductions from premix was deposited at the bank.
Indeed, he said, the fishermen did not even know which bank with which the money was deposited.
One of the committee members, Timothy Mensah, in an interview with the Times said, however, that the allegations by the fishermen were untrue.
He said the premix committee was made up of five persons which included the chief fisherman, representatives each from the Canoe Owners Association, Fish Mongers Association, Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA).
Mr. Mensah said that the idea was that the chief fisherman and the representative from the Canoe Owners Association were to convey the information of all meetings to their members and so therefore it was not necessary for the committee to sit down with the fishermen to render account.
He attributed the agitation by the fishermen to “political factionalism”, claiming that it was some NPP members among the fishermen who were spearheading that agenda.
However, when the Times spoke to some of the fishermen on the allegation of the perceived “political factionalism” by some of the committee members, they denied the story and claimed that most of them were NDC members but their aim was to ensure that “the right thing is done.”
The Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr. Kobina Pra-Annan, later entreated the fishermen to accept the programme saying that it was a very important initiative. But despite the several appeals by Mr. Pra-Annan, the fishermen stood their grounds and this compelled the authorities to call for a stakeholders’ meeting to be held at a later date to resolve the impasse.
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