The campaign by the Nigerian government to get more Nigerians to take up insurance policies has been intensified in recent times. Health insurance, in particular, has been advocated for. Although the message is beginning to sink in for people in the country’s professional class, a large section of Nigeria’s population remains not too bothered.
Now, the Federal Government has decided to take Health Insurance to the uninsured masses- it has announced that it plans to extend health insurance policy to members of the National Youth Service Corps, retirees, and even prison inmates.
The Acting Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Mr Femi Akingbade, revealed this while speaking at the launch of the Community Based Social Insurance Scheme in Bwari Area Council of Abuja. The government’s insurance covers campaigns, he said, will also target the country’s huge informal sector.
Akingbade indicated that “Programmes for the NYSC members, prison inmates, and retirees” were being designed and would be “rolled out for the benefit of the different categories of beneficiaries nationwide”. He talked about the Community Based Health Insurance Program (CBHIP) which according to him is the government’s strategy to get the informal sector involved in the scheme. As part of this plan, trade groups and cooperative societies would be given the chance to access health insurance.
The NHIS Acting Executive Secretary said that the extension of health insurance to the informal sector was the result of efforts by the scheme to achieve universal health coverage for Nigerians.