Still on the NHIS

No doubt this is now one of the most important issues in health care provision in Nigeria…the Nigerian press is just picking this up.




Please read this excellent piece on the NHIS by Rueben Abati in the Guardian. 
Except – Without any doubt, the NHIS over which so much air has been split is a programme for the elites. Providing a non-discriminatory, broad-based healthcare opportunity for all Nigerians should be the overriding objective. There is a lot to be done. Health workers need to be motivated to take their jobs more seriously and to be interested in serving Nigeria, not a foreign land whose attraction are the better conditions that it promises. Governments at all levels must assign more funds to the growth of the health sector with international standards in mind. Special attention must be paid to colleges of medicine, teaching hospitals and health related institutions to ensure quality training of medical personnel. A lot more energy should also be devoted to public enlightenment and the creation of social safety nets. People need to know what health insurance is all about: are they entitled to discounts? Is there a linkage between lifestyle choices and health insurance packages? Can they make choices and if so, what kind of choices? DETAILS HERE 



Sulaimon Olanrewaju in the Tribune
The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is set to ensure that all Nigerians enjoy health insurance coverage by 2015. According to the Executive Secretary, MBW Dogo-Muhammad, all hands are on deck to ensure that 40 per cent of the entire country is covered by 2013. DETAILS HERE

The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has registered over 4 million Federal Civil Servants and their dependants while the scheme has provided health cover for over 600,000 pregnant women and children under-five in six selected states in the country. DETAILS HERE

Roland Ogbonnaya in Thisday
There have been challenges. Challenges of lack of working data, funds and lack of political will by state governments as well as local councils. “After operating the scheme for four years, we discovered that NHIS was working without data. This has been corrected and we feel that if Nigerians are healthy, the country will be productive; we believe it is doable. We don’t have monopoly of ideas, we listen to complains and suggestions as well as threats and how the programme is doing. All these is to make us work better,” NHIS executive secretary said. DETAILS HERE



The worry here is that unlike in other countries where this would be on top of the political agenda, this is being discussed on the fringes…

WHAT A COUP IT WILL BE IF THE PRESIDENT WOULD SET HIMSELF A TARGET OF COVERING 20 MILLION NIGERIANS BY 2011….JUST 20 MILLION!