GAVI/UNICEF Partners NiCARE On Health Insurance

Niger State Contributory Health Agency(NiCARE) has entered into partnership with UNICEF for implementation of a supported health insurance project targeting 10,000 beneficiaries.

GAVI/ UNICEF representative, Adamu Mamba, at a budget review meeting for UNICEF Supported Health Insurance beneficiaries made a presentation on the aim of the partnership .

He said the review was aimed at addressing key areas, including enrollment of beneficiaries, utilisation of health services by enrollees, data collection and reporting availability and quality of healthcare services.
The representative gave a presentation on the Zero Dose initiative, explaining their intention was to leverage NiCare’s interventions to enhance immunisation coverage across the state.

Executive secretary of NiCare, Sulayman Abu-Bakr, highlighted the need for increased service utilisation by beneficiaries, adding, “As an agency, our priority is to improve health outcomes across the state.”
Abu-Bakr emphasised that health insurance would serve as a tool to improve immunisation coverage and urged all partners to align efforts towards that goal.

He added, “The review is to see what we have been doing, such as the service utilisation rate, and how we can make sure that we utilise the money and ensure that our enrollees get the value for their money.”

He said the agency had at least one facility in each of the 274 wards in the state and 21 secondary services, making a total of 315 facilities across the state. He added that the agency was having conversations with private facilities for achieving the universal health coverage.