Zuma FM Radio through its annual Harvest Festival has launched an innovative healthcare insurance policy for rural farmers in Gurara, Suleja and Tafa local govt areas of Niger State.
The introduction of the new health initiative happened during the flag off of its annual planting season, as part of plans towards the 7th edition of the annual Zuma FM Agricultural Harvest Festival which holds at its Maje High point Radio House with over 500 farmers exhibiting yearly. The launch, which marks the first phase of the scheme, took place on Saturday August 12, 2023. There were 120 farmers present and successfully enrolled as the first batch to recieve free health insurance benefits.
The Festival has through the years, built a robust network of farmers, helping to provide a market for their goods and introducing them to small business loans and technological tools to ease the rural farming processes. The health insurance scheme is another way to enhance the lives of the farmers on the network.
The scheme is being run in partnership with the Niger State Government and gives rural farmers on the Zuma FM Network access to General hospitals and selected healthcare providers through The Niger State contributory Health Scheme (NGSCHS), a scheme setup to provide access to affordable quality healthcare to all the people of Niger State. With the roll out phase complete, the organisers are focused on getting more farmers signed on while also focusing on a successful festival exhibition at the end of the year with a review on the Health plan’s benefits as testament to a fruitful 2023 Harvest season.
Zuma FM radio, through this initiative aims to register at least 1000 farmers before December 2023 in time for its annual festival.
