Written By | Joshua Nahamya
In a preparation meeting of coffee farmers and Bushenyi district local government over health insurance
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BUSHENYI
Elucid Health Uganda, an organisation headquartered in the Netherlands, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Bushenyi District Local Government and the Ankole Coffee Producers Cooperative Union (ACPCU) to provide health insurance coverage for coffee farmers across the district.
The partnership was unveiled during a project inception meeting chaired by the Bushenyi Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Phionah Sanyu.
The Health Services Manager for Elucid Health said the organisation is partnering with ACPCU to register coffee farmers through their respective primary cooperative societies.
Under the new health insurance scheme, registered households will be eligible to receive up to Shs800,000 annually for emergency medical care and Shs160,000 for essential healthcare services.
Elucid Health is working with selected private health facilities in the region to provide the medical services.
The initiative aims to reduce the disease burden among rural households, improve labour productivity, and enhance agricultural output.
Project officials noted that illness-related productivity losses currently cost coffee farmers in Uganda an estimated US$180 per farmer annually.
Uganda is one of the world's leading coffee producers and is the second-largest coffee exporter in Africa, after Ethiopia.
During the meeting, CAO Phionah Sanyu advised Elucid Health Uganda to strictly adhere to the Ministry of Health (MoH) guidelines throughout the implementation of the project.
Health officials in Bushenyi headed by DHO in a meeting to sign a health insurance with coffee farmers
Ministry of Lands Rolls Out Digital Land Registration
In a separate development, the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development has announced a full transition to a digital land management system, effectively phasing out paper-based transactions for land registration and titling.
The digital transformation was unveiled during a stakeholder meeting held in the Bushenyi District Council boardroom.
The meeting was attended by the CAO, district technical staff, and Karengo, a representative of the Central Division Area Land Committee.
According to ministry officials, the transition is in line with a presidential directive issued in January this year aimed at eliminating paper-based records, reducing fraud, improving efficiency, and accelerating the processing of land titles.
Under the new system, all land transactions will originate at the lower local government level and be processed electronically using smartphones and other digital devices.
To facilitate the transition, the ministry will conduct intensive training for members of the District Land Management Office and the District Land Board.
Sanyu welcomed the digitisation initiative and urged the ministry to extend the training to members of Area Land Committees at the grassroots level.
She also requested that district administrators be granted access to the digital system to enable them to monitor progress and called for immediate public sensitisation campaigns to prepare residents for the new digital land management system.
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