Federal Govt Targets 83m Vulnerable Nigerians For Health Insurance Scheme

Amid reality that a large percentage of the Nigerian population lack access to quality healthcare, about 83 million indigent and poor Nigerians are being targeted to benefit from the Vulnerable Group Fund (VGF) of the federal government initiated health insurance scheme.

An official of the Ekiti State office of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr Jide Oloyede, said the move was designed to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in the country.

This he said will provide coverage for every citizen and make affordable healthcare services delivery available to the vulnerable persons across Nigeria.

Oloyede spoke in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital during a town hall meeting for uptake of health insurance tagged “Improving The Implementation of the Ekiti State Health Insurance Scheme”.

At the meeting convened by Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) and New Initiative for Social Justice (NISD), he added that a Vulnerable Group Fund (VGF) has been set up to include a component of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHPF) to take care of the vulnerable individuals.

According to him, “83 million Nigerians have been earmarked to benefit from the scheme.  They were gathered from the social registers of each of the 36 states of the federation. They will be the first set of people to benefit from the group.”

He noted that health insurance was made mandatory for every Nigerians following the signing into law NHIA Act in 2022 but not yet enforceable.

“Public health services are becoming expensive and healthcare services are becoming more unaffordable for many Nigerians, particularly the masses.

“At least 77 per cent as against 30 to 40 per cent is recommended for the coverage and attainment of UHC. It suggests that UHC is still very low in Nigeria. To meet the target, UHC needs to be made compulsory to increase from the present five percent to 10 percent.”