The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) Act was signed into law on the 19th of May 2022, in a bid to improve on the already existing health insurance scheme, guide the provision and regulation of health insurance and ensure its alignment with broader health system outcomes in Nigeria. The NHIA Act provides a legal basis for addressing some of the challenges of implementing health insurance in Nigeria. The provisions of the NHIA Act are aimed at ensuring accelerated progress towards attaining Universal Health Coverage in Nigeria. These include the provision for mandatory health insurance; the establishment of the Vulnerable Group Fund; and clarification of the roles of various stakeholders, and the expansion of the roles of the NHIA to promote, regulate and integrate all health insurance schemes in Nigeria.
On Friday 24th of May 2024, the NHIA hosted a strategic stakeholder’s engagement themed “The NHIA Act: Two Years After-reflections & Future Direction.” in collaboration with the Nigeria UHC Forum, and with support from the USAID Local Health Systems Sustainability (LHSS) Project. The stakeholder’s engagement brought together diverse stakeholders including Legislators, the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, State Commissioners, Heads of State Health Insurance Agencies, HMOs, Development Partners, CSOs, and others to reflect on the progress made so far, assess the current situation for improvement, and chart the future direction of health insurance in Nigeria.
The Director-General (DG) of the NHIA, Dr. Kelechi Ohiri set the stage for discussion by highlighting the new vision of the NHIA to expand coverage of health insurance with equity, improve quality of care and ensure efficiency in the health insurance ecosystem. The DG acknowledged existing challenges in the health insurance space and solicited the cooperation of the relevant stakeholders. Thereafter, the findings of the fiscal space analysis (FSA) for expanding health insurance coverage to the poor and vulnerable population conducted through the technical support of DGI Consult was presented by Dr. Bolanle Olusola-Faleye, the Chief of Party, USAID LHSS Project.
Stakeholders at the event shared insights and narrative-changing suggestions at a panel discussion session moderated by Dr. Gafar Alawode. The need to explore innovative financing options, effective use of data, better collaboration with providers, use of technology to improve transparency and ease of doing health insurance business were emphasized during the panel session.
The concerted efforts of stakeholders in the health insurance ecosystem will be central towards supporting the efforts of the NHIA to implement its strategic vision to increase enrollment and expand population coverage which will in turn improve access to care with equity, quality, efficiency and ultimately reduction in out-of-pocket expenditure, especially for the vulnerable populations.
‘’DGI Consult is a founding member organization and the secretariat of the Nigeria UHC Forum, a coalition of a wide array of stakeholders working towards raising the political prioritisation of universal health coverage in Nigeria’’
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