The Executive Secretary of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), in Nigeria says, the scheme has achieved six out of the ten Presidential Action Points given to it in August 2019.
The Executive secretary of the scheme, Prof Mohammad Nasir Sambo revealed this during his engagement with Health Reporters, in Kaduna State, North west Nigeria.
Prof. Sambo also hinted that he was able to stabilise the NHIS, and implement the presidential mandate given to him, with the support of the management and staff of the scheme.
Prof. Sambo who said, the scheme faced a lot of challenges that affected its progress before his assumption into office in 2019, cited a lot of crises in the scheme, ranging from internal disharmony, weak programmatic foundation, poor regulatory/ lack of cohesion between stakeholders low level of coverage by NHIS, among others, as some of the challenges.
He noted that the challenges made President Muhammadu Buhari to constitute an Independent Fact-Finding Panel (IFFP) to unravel root causes of the problems in the NHIS before appointing him.
He also said that between August 2019 and August 2020, he was able to make some remarkable progress in achieving the Presidential Action Plans, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I have been able to develop a 10-year Strategic Plan, drawn up a proper Job Description for the executive secretary NHIS; and cleared the backlog of all NHIS unaudited accounts from 2010 to date.
I have established a Financial Management System to bring NHIS in line with the new policy on Government owned enterprises and other applicable extant financial management policies,” he said.
The ES, also said that the review of the enabling Act and statutes of the NHIS was ongoing and that the Senate had passed it, noting that the review would help the scheme to expand its coverage to more Nigerians.
“In addition, to the review of the Act, the executive secretary said he was carrying out a detailed Human Resource (HR) Audit and addressing all outstanding Human Resources issues,” he also said.
Prof Sambo attributed the successes recorded so far to the rebranding agenda of value reorientation; transparency and accountability, and accelerating the drive of Universal Health Coverage (UCH).
He added that the NHIS had played a key role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, including supporting some front line workers with equipment.
