The Executive Secretary, Kwara State Health Insurance Care, Dr Olubunmi Jetawo-Winter says about 60,000 enrolees have been onboarded in the agency in the last 12 months.
Dr Jetawo-Winter disclosed this in Ilorin, the State capital during a chat with newsmen.
According to her, while ”21,000 of the enrolees were captured under the basic healthcare provision fund, 24,000 got boarded through formal and informal sectors categorization among others as stipulated in the guidelines of the agency.”
She explained that ”the massive enrolment commenced from last year September when Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq launched the access to health care for 10,000 indigenes.”
The Executive Secretary said ”the numbers were distributed across the 16 local government areas of the state with a view to enabling the people have a sense of belonging.”
She recalled that though the law establishing the agency was effective from 2017 but could not begin a full fledged operation due to lack of funding.
Dr Jetawo-Winter stated that the present administration had encouraged the agency with requisite funding since it came on board, stressing that the turnout for enrolment was quite commendable.
She said her agency had started employing political structure of office holders at the state and federal levels to reach out to the people for additional enrolment and coverage.
Dr Jetawo-Winter further stated that the agency has been able to mop up a lot of people both in the informal sector, the formal/private sector.
“Where we are going now is to board the public sector, the civil servants, which has been a challenge for us because of labour issue otherwise we would have onboarded them,” She stated.
Dr Jetawo-Winter disclosed that the agency also has community participation like Igbaja community came and paid for so many people in their constituency to access care as well as Abdulmajeed Foundation in Offa.
Answering another question, she added that agency was going through the political structure particularly those at the National and State House of Assembly to get them onboard their constituencies.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
