Follow Us on Google
Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has assured the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) of its readiness to release the recovered funds of the scheme in its custody, which the Commission has been holding for safety purposes.
EFCC acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, disclosed the information in Abuja, when he hosted the Executive Secretary of NHIS, Prof Mohammed Sambo, who led other officials on a courtesy visit.
NHIS spokesman, Ayo Osinlu, in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday, explained that EFCC recently assisted the scheme to recover some funds from certain officials and institutions that had improper custody of such funds.
He said the EFCC acting chairman has reassured NHIS that the funds were kept in the custody of the commission because it needed concrete assurance of due process, transparency and accountability in further handling of the funds.
The EFCC boss advised the NHIS management to intensify effort at value reorientation to deepen the moral tone of staff and stakeholders of the scheme
Magu described NHIS as a very helpful institution in healthcare financing, citing pleasant examples from his personal experience together with his family as enrollees of NHIS.
Earlier, the Executive Secretary of NHIS, Prof Sambo, explained that the visit was to appeal to the EFCC to release the funds it assisted the scheme to recover from unlawful possessions.
He explained the push for the release of the funds became necessary due to dwindling resources of the scheme.
Sambo promised to professionalise operations of NHIS by strengthening state offices to be able to effectively manage operations at that level since the bulk of the work is in the field space.
