Buhari Inaugurates NHIA Kwara Office Facilitated By Sen. Oloriegbe

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

Buhari gave the assurance in Ilorin 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.

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

The president also threw his weight behind the efforts of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to enable Nigerians and legal residents access quality healthcare.

Acknowledging that health and wellbeing of the citizenry was critical to the development of the country, Buhari commended Kwara Central Senator for quality representation of his people.

“This event is yet another evidence of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration focus on the establishment and maintenance of critical infrastructure across the length and breath of our great country in order to address the need of our citizens and legal residents.

“The present administration is particularly interested in the health and wellbeing of its citizens. The health and wellbeing of the citizens of Nigeria is central to the progress and development of our country. We want to recognize the prominent position that the health sector has in the next level agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Specifically, this administration has also made 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.

“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 each and every Nigerian and legal residents”, Buhari said.

In his remarks, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Dr Oloriegbe, who described Kwara NHIA office as 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 11 bills he sponsored, 10 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.

“The significance of this is that when this project started, the agency name was NHIS, today it is NHIA by virtue of a law that I have the privilege to sponsor. That law is not only a change of name but it is a change of insurance environment in Nigeria. It is what President Muhammadu Buhari has been able to do to make health insurance mandatory in this country.

“Every resident in Nigeria either you are a citizen or visitor, by virtue of that law, you 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 visa. Very soon, NHIA will make that to happen that anybody visiting Nigeria, as you are obtaining visa, you must obtain insurance because it is compulsory for you to have mandatory insurance.

“The importance of that is that we know in Nigeria many people are poor. We have about 83million of our population that cannot afford to pay for his premium because in insurance place, you must pay premium. By-law provided for the vulnerable group. So, today is also a significance of providing health to Nigerians. It is our hope that the incoming government will make that to happen.

“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 the Mr President to become law. One is the NHIA, the other one is the mental health act. It is this government for the first time that provides 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 the mental health is very significant; 40 percent of the population have one mental problem or the other”.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Raji Razaq, who represented Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, thanked Senator Oloriegbe and others for playing 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.

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