By Emmanuella Oghenetega
The Federal Government has revealed that Private organizations bidding for contracts must have a document from NHIA indicating that Staff have a form of health coverage.
This was revealed by the Chairman of the Nigerian Health Commissioners Forum, Dr. Oyebanji Filani, in an exclusive interview with the Pointernewspaper.
According to Dr. Filani, the announcement which came in a few months ago, by the President of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is to ensure insurance for all, and falls largely within the remit of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).
He said, “Sometime in late 2022 or early 2023, the former Act setting of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), was repealed and the new Act establishing the National Health Insurance Authority was enacted. Within that Act, it mandated insurance for all. Of course, that would mean that private sector players, also have to insure their workforce.
“To your point around enforceability, there are many things that government is looking into, one, of which the President himself announced a few months back, is that, should you want to bid for any Federal government contracts as a private sector player, you must have a document from NHIA indicating staff of your organisation are covered in one form of insurance or the other.
“Also, the NHIA has set up a grievance redress mechanism, platform that allows citizens provide feedback, seek clarifications or offer suggestions as to where the challenges are, and so NHIA now has the enforcing power, to make sure that a number of these things are done. Just last week, I am aware that the DG of the NHIA was in conversations with the Bank of Industry; to further close the loop around some of these issues. So even Small Scale Enterprises with small number of workforce, can benefit from specific NHIA programs that they plug into, that allows them to ensure that everyone within that organization has access to care.”
Answering question of how the Federal Government intends to adopt biometric verification across all Primary Healthcare Centres and health insurance platforms, Dr. Filani said, “This was a suggestion made at Joint Annual Review (JAR), recognising that Gombe and one other state had implemented it in a subset of facilities within specific LGAs. The value inherent in having this sort of innovation is to ensure that we minimise absenteeism, and guarantee that people are at work so that they are able to deliver services as at when due.
“However, there are a number of things to take into consideration when this sort of innovation needs to scale, the first is the structure of the facility, so if there is an entrance, and a different exit, it is important to take this into consideration and ensure any software is installed at all entries and exit.
“Also, it is important to consider the cost of setup and scale.
“And, it is equally important to take into consideration, the network availability in different areas. I think the Biometric verification is nice to have, it is something that as a government we should look into, to minimize absenteeism in facilities. But the processes that will take us there, will need to be further fleshed out, reviewed appropriately, to ensure that it is fit for purpose in a manner that allows for swift adoption in every state, every local government, and of course all the relevant facilities in each of these local governments across states.”
Dr. Filani, who is also the Commissioner for Health and Human Services in Ekiti State, while answering the question on whether residents of his state had lost confidence in state owned healthcare facilities, as he had recently urged them on their patronage, he said, “It is not that people have lost confidence. As a matter of fact, there has been a significant increase in the use of Government services in Ekiti State.
“If you take a look at all the key metrics, either ante-natal coverage, family planning, skilled deliveries, or even child immunization, we are seeing an upward trend across all of these metrics in Ekiti State,l.
“The rationale for saying urging residents to patronise public facilities, was that over the last 9 months we have invested heavily in revamping our health institutions, our primary healthcare facilities, we renovated over 100 primary care facilities, we have included equipment in this facilities and we have employed over 150 additional staff to support this facilities.
“So the basis of saying this, is that now that we have put all of these things in place, it is important that people make use of it. We are happy about the delivery of services in Ekiti state, it can always be better. Let us be very clear about that, and that is why we sit down as a government in the Ministry of health every week, looking into the data to understand what we need to do better, where the challenges are, and how we can course correct as we move forward.
“The last point I will make around this, is if you take a look at the last National demographic health survey that came out in 2024, Ekiti state was one of the best performance across all state.
“We as a state have reduced infant mortality by 57% and under 5 mortal by 54%. So these are significant numbers that anywhere globally will be celebrated and we are happy with the level of work that we have done. But of course, we do not rest, we will continue to improve and continue to encourage people to access care should they need it.”
The Health commissioner, responding to the question on whether residents of his state shared the same view as him, as it pertains the healthcare, he said, “In Ulerawa, that is our state health insurance program. We just finalized a study, in terms of awareness around Ulerawa, the health insurance usage around Ulerawa. I think awareness was over 87% in the state. So it means that a number of people know about it, and then the perception to the service delivery is also high. So, of course, you would have those who are not satisfied, naturally. But if you zoom out and look at the entire population, we have a significant number of people who are happy with the services government is providing in Health. People would always want more.
“As a matter of fact, and I say this with all sense of humility, Health sector is one of the top 3 prioritized area for the Governor of Ekiti State, Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji has invested heavily in health and we are seeing the results, alongside Agric, education, infrastructure and a host of other sectors.”
The Commissioner refuted claims that the rural population in Ekiti State faced challenges of inadequate infrastructure, shortage of medical personnel, poor health care financing, low health insurance coverage and poor access to primary healthcare. He said, “I can tell you for free that, this is incorrect. In the last six years, we have been very methodical, as to addressing key issues, we are expanding rapidly the number of facilities and capabilities of our secondary and tertiary facilities, to have the ability to cater for continuing population and the healthcare needs of households, we are holding our health workers to task, to ensure that they deliver.
“We pay doctors higher than what federal government pays at the moment in Ekiti, of course that may change once they approve the latest Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) at Federal, but at the the moment we pay higher, we were the first state to match Federal governments hazard allowance. We increased salaries for not just doctors but all our clinical health worker, just to make sure that people feel a bit more excited about their work, and that there is dignity to labour.
“I talked about the data review that we do regularly, because that is something I chair myself, I sit down with the entire team to look at what the data says, where there are gaps; what we need to do to address them.
“Just yesterday, the Governor had approved an additional N300 million to support our Ulerawa program and that allows many more people to have access to care, particularly in our primary healthcare facilities. This year alone, just a little under 600,000 people, have accessed care under the health Insurance of Ulerawa. So there’s a lot of work going on in Ekiti.
Speaking on why doctors were striking, he said “Not in Ekiti. Our health workers are committed to providing services for everyone.”
