Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari says his administration is committed to supporting the ongoing reforms in the health sector.

The President gave the assurance in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, North Central Nigeria at the commissioning of a new National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Kwara State office, which the Senator representing Kwara central and Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Dr Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe facilitated.

Buhari who spoke through his Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, said his administration attained significant achievements in universal health coverage in the country with the operationalization of the basic healthcare provision funds and assent to the NHIS bill that had since metamorphosed into NHIA.

According to him, the present administration is behind the efforts of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) in enabling Nigerians and legal residents to access quality healthcare.

The President who acknowledged that the health and well-being of the citizenry are critical to the development of the country commended Kwara Central Senator for the quality representation of his people.

According to him, the event is yet another evidence of his administration's focus on the establishment and maintenance of critical infrastructure across the length and breadth of the country to address the needs of the citizens and legal residents.

Buhari explained further that the present administration is particularly interested in the health and well-being of its citizens.

“The health and wellbeing of the citizens of Nigeria are central to the progress and development of our country as this administration has also specifically made a giant stride towards the universal health coverage in Nigeria by ensuring the operationalization of the basic healthcare provision funds and signing the National Health Insurance Authority bill into law, thus becoming an act on May 19, 2022,” the President said.

“Let me assure you that the federal government will continue to support the ongoing reforms and the efforts of the National Health Insurance Authority to improve access to quality healthcare for every Nigerian and legal resident”, Buhari said.

Mandatory Insurance
In his remarks, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Dr Oloriegbe, who described Kwara NHIA office as the first to be completed, said one of the provisions of the law guiding the operation of the authority made it mandatory for Nigerians to be insured.

He disclosed that of the eleven bills he sponsored, ten scaled through in the senate while four of them secured presidential assent.

Oloriegbe said, “The new NHIS office in Kwara is significant in many ways. This office is the first among the six that they are building. It is the first to be completed and commissioned in Nigeria” he stated.

According to him, the significance of this is that when this project started, the agency was NHIS, but today, it is NHIA by virtue of a law that he was privileged to sponsor.

Oloriegbe disclosed that the law is not only a change of name but it is a change of the insurance environment in Nigeria which is what President Muhammadu Buhari has been able to do to make health insurance mandatory in this country.

The Lawmaker explained that every resident in Nigeria either one is a citizen or visitor, by that law, must have insurance, and the agency is in the process of ensuring this.

“If we are going to travel to Europe, you must go and obtain insurance before you are granted a visa. Very soon, NHIA will make that happen that anybody visiting Nigeria, as you are obtaining a visa, you must obtain insurance because it is compulsory for you to have mandatory insurance” he stated.

“This government has been able to do a lot. And through us even as the Chairman, Health Committee of the Senate, I have been able to sponsor 11 health bills; 10 of them had been passed by the Senate; four had been signed by Mr President to become law. One is the NHIA, and the other one is the mental health act. This government for the first time has provided a legal framework to enable mental health to be recognized in this country.

“All hospitals and so on are physical health and the social health is our water resources, economy and environment. But mental health is very significant; 40 per cent of the population have one mental problem or the other” Oloriegbe said.

Federal presence
The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Raji Razaq, who represented Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, thanked Senator Oloriegbe and others for playing a crucial role in the facilitation of federal presence to the state.

Also speaking, the Director General and Chief Executive Officer of NHIA, Professor Muhammed Nasiru Sambo, said full decentralization of the authority's business processes to the state offices and provision of befitting and functional office space due to growing human resource base would enhance the agency's corporate image and improve services to enrollees.