By Cosmas Okereafor
Efforts by government to ensure that Nigerians, and those legally resident in the country are enrolled on the platform of National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), for quality medical care was re-echoed in Lagos recently in a stakeholders meeting organised by the NHIA. Government says its target is to have a nationwide coverage on health insurance latest by 2030.With the theme; “Cutting Edge Advances in NHIA and stakeholders Satisfaction”, NHIA officials says it was important to bring stakeholders together to acquaint them with the latest trends and developments, and to also chart a way forward on how consumers of its services could be served better.They alluded to the fact that, NHIA Gifship program, with the slogan, ‘”Leaving no one behind”, calls for all hands to be on deck in making sure that, everyone is brought on board to the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) program.The officials reiterated the need for close monitoring of what stakeholders are doing to ensure compliance and to mitigate complaints from the general public who are the major target in this case.
They also inferred that, the meeting was purely organised to deliberate on how to achieve universal health coverage saying that, health insurance has become very mandatory for all and sundry in the society.Dr, Bethuel Kasimu Abraham, NHIA State Coordinator, Ikeja stressed that, the essence of the forum was to update stakeholders on new policies and also to gather feedback which is necessary for day by day activities of the Authority.According to him; “Some of the changes are technological. Some have to do with policy and that is what informed the theme of the programe for today. So that people get to know the recent, nascent changes that have taken place and how it affects them. For example, to get registered as an individual, you are not an employee of any organization. You are not a government worker. But as an individual, you know you can stroll into the NHIA office and register. But then, you are now told that, you can do this from the comfort of your bedroom. You don’t have to stroll into the NHIA office, maybe two or four kilometres away from you. That is a new information that needs to go on. It is a cutting edge improvement in what we have been doing before now. So, these are some of the information that they need to know about. And then, secondly, you also look at some of the changes we are making in terms of our equity program.
Now a lot of people out there we may not want to describe them as having deep shallow pockets. The better way to describe them is having no pockets. And there are interventions government is making for them through the NHIA. So they need to be aware that NHIA is involved in doing these things”.Dr Abraham however pointed that through the NHIA scheme that critical health conditions, especially as it affects women are being corrected daily, saying that, time has come for everyone to embrace the programs of NHIA to forestall sufferings of the people unnecessarily . According to him “Our fistula ÷ free program for women that are either through delivery or they developa fistula where they are picking urine or picking faeces , and the kind of poverty that introduces into people’s lives. It is not just financial but its also, we will call it health poverty. Its that bad, where they are secluded from others, they can’t come out. Its a sorry state so to say. And most of them cannot afford the money to do the corrective surgery. But now, NHIA is doing it all over the country. We are doing it in such a way that, they don’t get to pay a dime”.Corroborating what Dr. Abraham said, the Assistant Director, Mrs Chika Amahalu said that NHIA is truly doing a lot in every facet of its operations adding that its left for the HMOs to make themselves visible in their own operations.” So its now up to the HMOs to make themselves visible, to render services that will make people recommend them to others .So it makes the space a level playing field and very competitive, so if you are not doing well, anybody using your HMO will not recommend you to another”. She added.A good number of HMOs attended the stake holders forum organised on the 24 th September, 2025 at Neca house, ikeja, Lagos.
