The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) on Monday started inspection of 100 Primary Health Centres (PHCs) in Kebbi, billed to be accredited and integrated into the scheme.
The leader of the accreditation team, Dr Okoh Christopher, said this during a meeting with the state’s health management agency in Birnin Kebbi.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Christopher spoke at the first Accreditation Exercise and Planning Meeting with staff of Kebbi Contributory Healthcare Management Agency (KECHEMA) held in Birnin Kebbi.
He described the planning meeting as one of the prerequisites that must be met to facilitate integration of the state into the scheme.
He explained that other conditions mandated for any state to be enrolled into the scheme was to have functional State Health Insurance Scheme Agency, as well as take-off grant, among others.
He added that “I want to to remind us that the NHIS is not only meant for the formal sector, it is also for informal sector. One of the criteria to have NHIS is to have functional state health insurance agency with take-off grant”.
The team leader lauded Kebbi Government for enrolling into the scheme, assuring that the social health programme would benefit people of the state and rural dwellers when it commenced.
The Kebbi Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Jaafar Muhammad, disclosed that 100 Primary Health Centres across the state would be subjected to the accreditation exercise by NHIS.
He said that the benefits of the scheme would be enormous to the people of Kebbi as they would be able to access health services when they didn’t have money at their disposal.
The Executive Secretary of KECHEMA, Dr Jaafar Augie-Mohammed, then gave a detailed analysis of the scheme enrollment.
He said that “apart from the small money required by individuals to access the scheme, health facilities will be upgraded, while staff of the agency in the state, at the local and ward levels, will be trained on the scheme service delivery.
“I am optimistic that all Primary Health Centres that will be subjected to accreditation by the NHIS team from Abuja will pass the test.”
