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From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Maureen Allagoa has restated that importance of insurance as a crucial element to solving the myriad of challenges facing the nation’s health care system.
According to Allagoa, the importance of health insurance in Nigeria can never be over emphasised as it cushions the potential negative impact of the persistent underfunding in the health sector.
The NSITF boss spoke at a three-day retreat of the Second Board and Management of ProHealth Health Management Organisation (HMO) retreat in Nassarawa at the weekend.
With over 800 healthcare providers in its network, more than 50,000 enrollees and one million successfully trained personnel, she noted that the organization has the duty to act as a bridge between Nigerians and the healthcare providers by coordinating the delivery of basic healthcare services.
Speaking at the event themed, “Nigeria Health Insurance Ecosystem: The Place of ProHealth HMO Limited, Allogoa said: “Health insurance provides financial risk protection for Nigerians by insuring the availability of pool of funds for the provision of their healthcare needs. By making health insurance mandatory for all Nigerians, particularly all employers and employees in the corporate and private sectors, in the Nigeria Health Insurance Authority (NSHI) Act, 2022, government has provided guaranteed access to quality and affordable healthcare for all Nigerians.
“Here in lies the place of ProHealth in the Nigeria’s health insurance ecosystem as one of the leading health maintainance organisations just like it’s parent body, the NSITF, which is a leading social security institution in Nigeria, and indeed Africa.
In his remarks, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige said the retreat was a unique opportunity for all participants to deliberate on issues affecting the Nigerian health insurance sector, and come up with best possible solutions.
Represented by NSITF Board Chairman, Chief Emmanuel Nwosu, the Minister said: “As we all know, the Nigeria health care sector has been facing numerous challenges over the years including inadequate funding, low insurance penetration, and inadequate infrastructure.
These challenges have made it difficult for many Nigerians to access affordable and quality healthcare services.
“However, the emergence of Health Management Organisations like ProHealth has played a crucial role in bridging the gap. ProHealth HMO has been at the forefront of providing access to quality healthcare for Nigerians by partnering with health care providers to provide affordable health care services to its enrollees.
“This retreat presents an opportunity for us to deliberate on the challenges faced by the Nigeria health insurance sector in providing affordable healthcare services and how ProHealth HMO can continue to innovate and provide quality health care services to its enrollees. I urge you all to participate in this retreat with open mind commitment to finding practical solutions to the challenges we face.”
Chairman Board of Directors at ProHealth, Prof Gabriel Okenwa stated that social security, which needs to be prioritized, is the only way to ensure that Nigerians have access to proper health services.
According to Okenwa, “This is for the whole world to know that we have come of age, and we are dropping this as from the bottom of our hearts as nipping the bud at this point in time. I want to say that by section 17 of the 1999 constitution of Nigeria as amended, adequate medical and health facilities for Nigerians is guaranteed through the section of our constitution.
“The only way to realise this objective is through social security. At the height of this social security, is what NSITF is leading and NSITF, is the pioneer social security organisation and leading this. Provision of efficient health care system with modern health facilities requires enamours capital and resources. The global best practices endorsed by International Labour Organisation (ILO) is through social insurance scheme and this is driven by one of our subsidiaries, that is the ProHealth HMO.
Speaking further he said: “We enjoin all Nigerians to embrace and subscribe to this this key for affordable, accessible and sustainable health care delivery system in this country of ours, Nigeria. It is the way to go fir Nigerian in the overall interest of our general well being. Remember, health is wealth.”
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