Our Reporter
The Kwara State Health Insurance Agency in partnership with PharmAccess Foundation has launched the implementation of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) “Transform and Innovation Grant.”
The innovative project, tagged “Sustainable Business Case for Universal Health Coverage in Nigeria”, is primarily to facilitate and complement the efforts of the Kwara State Government to scale up access to affordable and quality basic healthcare services for all residents of the State, across the 16 Local Government Areas.
The Bank’s grant is for the purpose of addressing demand-side and supply-side challenges of the Kwara State Health Insurance Scheme. It is also to complement the efforts of the Kwara State Government and the Basic Health Care Provision Fund, towards improving healthcare coverage for low-income households.
The IsDB-funded project would further enhance the strategic implementation of the Kwara State Health Insurance Scheme and would be utilized for financing the premium of about 4000 low-income population, mobilizing the informal sector population and strengthening the capacity of healthcare providers participating in the scheme.
During the event, the Executive Secretary of the Kwara State Health Insurance Agency, Dr. Olubunmi Jetawo-Winter, emphasizing the significance of the IsDB Grant to the Agency’s goal, mentioned that: “the impressive funding support and goodwill the Scheme is receiving revolves around the political will and the passion of our governor, His Excellency, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, who is making efforts at ensuring that the Kwara populace, more than ever before, have unlimited access to healthcare services, through the initial investment of the State government in a sustainable social health insurance scheme for its people”.
She further added that the project would proffer the opportunity to incorporate more indigent beneficiaries into the Scheme across the three senatorial districts of Kwara State, to fast track the onboarding of the indigent population unto the scheme.
Giving her remarks at the event, the Country Director of PharmAccess Foundation, Ms. Njide Ndili stated that the initiative proves the importance of public-private partnership in building Nigeria’s health sector which requires resource mobilization both locally and internationally. She urged other stakeholders and partners to collaborate to accelerate the achievement of Universal Health Coverage especially for the poor and less privileged.
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She said: “We will continue to aggregate resources from partners to enable Kwara State and the other states we support to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC). We are delighted with the IsDB partnership, we encourage other partners to join us and support State Government initiatives to fund health insurance for the poor and indigents so that we can collective achieve UHC by 2030 as a Nation”
Also speaking, the Director of Health Plans and Digital Innovations, PharmAccess Foundation, Mr. Emeka Ajanwachuku, said: “improving access to affordable quality healthcare is essential to attaining the universal health coverage agenda, and the IsDB Grant provides the needed platform to accelerate the program reach in an innovative manner.
Since the relaunch of the Kwara State Health Insurance Scheme in the last quarter of 2020, over 300,000 people have been registered, of which over 26,000 people are active with the 60 accredited and impanelled healthcare providers enlisted in the Scheme. The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Grant is another critical leverage for the Agency to rapidly scale and attain universal health coverage. We are enthusiastic that more of these strategic partnerships and interventions would be received to support the implementation of the Kwara Health Insurance Scheme.
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