Nutrition
The NHIS Opportunity: Leveraging Ghana’s uncapped health levy for nutrition services
Ghana’s decision to uncap the National Health Insurance Levy in 2025 marks an important shift in health financing. By removing limits on how much revenue the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) can receive, government has created room to strengthen and expand essential health services.
This change comes at a crucial time for maternal and child nutrition, where effective solutions already exist but are yet to reach everyone who needs them.
Two such interventions are Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) for children with severe acute malnutrition and Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS) for pregnant women. Both are included in Ghana’s Essential Medicines List and Standard Treatment Guidelines, confirming their safety and effectiveness. Yet neither is currently covered under NHIS, leaving access dependent largely on donor-supported programmes.
The consequences are visible. An estimated 68,517 children in Ghana need treatment for severe acute malnutrition, but only about 15 per cent receive RUTF. For pregnant women, iron–folic acid supplements remain the standard, even though they address only two of the 15 essential micronutrients required during pregnancy. As a result, maternal anaemia remains widespread, affecting between 37 and 63 per cent of pregnant women depending on the trimester.
What makes this moment different is that Ghana already has the systems needed to deliver these services at scale. NHIS enrollment among mothers of children under five stands at about 84 per cent. National guidelines for the use of RUTF and MMS are finalised and in use, and more than 600 health workers have been trained on updated protocols. Supply chain structures are in place. The missing link has been sustainable, predictable financing.
Cost should not be a barrier. A full course of MMS costs about USD 2.50 per pregnancy and has been shown to reduce low birth weight by 12 per cent and preterm births by 11 per cent. This represents a small share of current spending on undernutrition. RUTF, while more resource-intensive, reduces the need for expensive hospital admissions by enabling effective community-based care, with recovery rates of 75 to 90 per cent. Ongoing Health Technology Assessments will provide Ghana-specific evidence to guide NHIS reimbursement decisions.
Including RUTF and MMS in the NHIS benefits package would change how nutrition services are delivered. Coverage would no longer depend on where donor programmes operate. Families would be protected from out-of-pocket costs, and services would be delivered as part of routine maternal and child healthcare. Importantly, data on coverage and outcomes would flow through national systems, strengthening monitoring, accountability, and planning.
Ghana has committed to achieving 80 per cent coverage of essential health services by 2030 under its Universal Health Coverage agenda. Nutrition is central to this goal, as it underpins child survival, maternal health, and long-term human development. The uncapping of the National Health Insurance Levy offers a rare chance to close long-standing nutrition financing gaps using domestic resources.
The opportunity is clear. The systems are ready. The evidence is established. What remains is a deliberate policy choice to use this expanded fiscal space to ensure that lifesaving nutrition services reach mothers and children across the country, consistently, equitably, and sustainably. The levy uncapping opens the door; leadership must walk through it.
Feature article by Women, Media and Change under its Nourish Ghana: Advocating for Increased Leadership to Combat Malnutrition project
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In March 2025, world leaders gathered in Paris for the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit, the most important global gathering on malnutrition of the decade. Over $30 billion in new financial commitments were pledged globally by more than 170 actors from 82 countries. Ghana was there. Ghana made commitments. The question now is: are those commitments enough, and will they be delivered?
Ghana made 10 commitments at the 2025 N4G Summit. One of the most significant is a pledge to spend at least $6 million annually from 2026 for the procurement of essential nutrition commodities including ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS), iron-folic acid tablets, vitamin A supplements, and anthropometric equipment for measuring child growth.
This financial commitment is meaningful. For years, Ghana’s nutrition programmes have depended heavily on donor funding, leaving services vulnerable to aid cuts and supply disruptions. A domestic budget line for nutrition commodities signals a shift toward ownership and sustainability. It also directly supports Ghana’s Nutrition for Growth commitments from the 2021 Tokyo Summit, several of which remain off track.
The Bigger Picture
The 2025 N4G Summit was about more than funding. It called for systemic change: embedding nutrition in food systems, health coverage, climate resilience, and gender equality. Every dollar invested in nutrition is estimated to return $16 to the local economy. Yet malnutrition still costs Ghana an estimated 6.4 per cent of its GDP annually. That is not a public health statistic. It is an economic emergency.
The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) has acknowledged that converting summit outcomes into actionable change requires transparent policy dialogue and locally driven solutions.
Commitments made in Paris must be tracked, funded, and implemented in Ghana’s communities. Programmes must move from pilot scale to national coverage. That will not happen without sustained political will, dedicated domestic financing, and public accountability.
Commitments made on global stages matter. But they only become meaningful when they translate into services in communities. The question is not what Ghana promised in Paris. It is what Ghana delivers at home.
Feature article by Women, Media and Change under its Nourish Ghana: Advocating for Increased Leadership to Combat Malnutrition project
Cabbage is very rich in fibre, the main supplier of roughage. This helps the body retain water and it maintains the bulkiness of the food as it moves through the bowels.
Thus, it is a good remedy for constipation and other digestion-related problems.
Ingredients
-1 large cabbage
– 4 large fresh tomatoes
– 1 large onion
– Pepper
-Garlic
-2 large salmon
-1 tin of mackerel
-2 large green pepper
-Salt to taste
Preparation
-Chop cabbage roughly and wash in a large pot of water
-Pour vinegar on it and wait until you make other preparations. Then drain.
-Heat coconut oil in a saucepan over medium heat
-Cook and stir onion in hot oil until onion turns dark brown.
-Blend tomatoes, green pepper, garlic and onion and add to the oil
-Add tomato paste, mackerel and salmon to stew
-Add cabbage, stir and cover to cook for 7 – 10 minutes
-Allow to simmer when it is soft and serve with rice, yam etc.
