Chief Executive of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Nathaniel Otoo, has resigned  just 16 months of coming into office, a report from citifmonline indicates.

According to the report, a source had revealed  that his departure was sanctioned by government sometime last week following the receipt of his letter of resignation.

It is not clear what necessitated his departure and where he is headed next, but he has told close associates that he wants to “pursue other career opportunities,” the report adds.

But information gathered by ghanaguardian.com indicates Mr Otoo's resignation was necessitated by the fact that the new administration, after assumption of office,  has asked some heads of state department and agencies appointed by the previous administration to proceed on leave while others have been given a straight sack.

The  lawyer and a Universal Health Coverage and risk protection technocrat leaves office just after 16 months of  replacing  Sylvester Mensah who served as  CEO of the  scheme after for 6 years.

He was the Deputy Chief Executive responsible for Operations and  had  earlier served as the organization’s Director of Administration & General Counsel.

He has been credited with wide-ranging reforms and organizational restructuring at the NHIS and leaves behind a Scheme with a membership of over 11 million members and a utilization of 31 million

The NHIA was a major subject of discussion during the just ended election, with the two major political parties at variance on the status of what has become Ghana’s biggest social protection programme, the NHIS.

The then NPP in opposition  accused the then governing National Democratic Congress of collapsing the National Health Insurance Scheme,

However the NDC vehemently disputed that, claiming the scheme has been in a safer hands where it witnessed   rapid growth  from 1.5 million subscribers in 2006 to 11 million  under the Mahama government.