The Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, on Tuesday, said President Goodluck Jonathan would soon launch a new National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) registration format.
The minister said this while presenting his ministry’s score card at the 2014 ministerial platform held at the National Press Centre, Abuja. Chukwu said that under the new registration format, Nigerians could enroll for the scheme using mobile telephone technology.
“I want to announce to this gathering that Mr President will soon launch the mobile phone format of registration for the NHIS. “It will reduce the difficulties associated with queuing up in offices to be registered for the NHIS and it will improve health insurance coverage for Nigerians.
“We want every Nigerian to enjoy a form of health insurance and this we want to do in a number of innovative ways,’’ he said.
He said the aim of the new registration format was to upscale healthcare financing and improved health insurance coverage beyond 30 per cent targeted by the Federal Government.
The minister said about 24 million Nigerian children had been scheduled to be enrolled under the new registration format, adding that it was part of the strategic plan for universal health coverage.
Chukwu assured Nigerians that registration for the scheme would be made easier when the new format was inaugurated by the Federal Government.
He said scaling up healthcare financing had been one of the achievements of the Goodluck Jonathan administration since 2011.
Also fielding questions at the forum, the Executive Secretary of NHIS, Dr Femi Thomas, said government was planning to assist Nigerians to access subsidised healthcare in both public and private facilities around them.
He said 700 healthcare facilities had been registered to run the insurance scheme, while 300 more facilities would be accredited before the end of the year to increase the figure to 1,000.
Thomas said the objective was to expand the options available for Nigerians both in private and public healthcare facilities.
In a related development, Dr Ado Mohammed, the Executive Secretary of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), said the Agency had adopted new technologies in tracking polio vaccine administration.
He said the Agency was using electronic chip which were inserted in vaccine bags to track the area of coverage of the vaccinators in the field. The executive secretary said the strategy was part of a plan adopted to wipe out polio from parts of the country.
He added that the country had no new reported cases of infection, saying Nigeria was close to a zero polio virus status.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the health minister was accompanied to the forum by the Minister of State for Health, Dr Khaliru Alhassan, heads of agencies and directors in the ministry. (NAN)
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