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President John Dramani Mahama on Thursday announced that government has expanded the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to cover other diseases. These include breasts and cervical cancer and mental illness. Other services brought on board include family planning, care for pensioners and children under the age of five. President Mahama announced this when he jointly inaugurated the Regional offices of the National Health Insurance Authority and the National Communications Authority (NCA). The inauguration formed part of President Mahama's two-day official visit to the Northern Region, where he inaugurated a 39.3 million- Euro project at the Tamale Teaching Hospital. President Mahama would also inaugurate completed development projects in the Bunkprugu District and climax his visit with a durbar at Nalerigu in the Mamprusi West District. He said government would roll out claims centres throughout the country to speed up the recovery of national health insurance claims. President Mahama said the health capitation programme is a major way in which the NHIS could be sustained for future generations and appealed to health professionals to lend their support to government to implement the programme to achieve maximum benefits. On the NCA, President Mahama said government is constructing a 780- kilometre fibre optic cable to facilitate internet connection throughout the country. He said under the project all district capitals would be hooked to the internet, while additional 200 towns and communities along the cable project would also benefit. He said apart from South Africa, Ghana is the next largest user of broadband mobile phone services in the African continent, attributing the breakthrough to better implementation of information communication technology policies. President Mahama said the mobile phone network enjoys a total of 27 million subscription, attributing the high figure to the ability of Ghanaians to own more than one mobile line. Madam Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Health said the NHIS programme recorded a total of 9.1 million subscribers. She said the figure is expected to increase to 12 million by the close of 2014.