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Tag: NHIS

  • NHIS’ peculiar mess

    National Health Insurance Scheme due for probe and reform

    Any action lacking in honour, no matter how noble, will end in peril. These wise words may have been coined for Nigeria’s health insurance scheme. Health insurance is one of modern man’s most innovative anti-dote against ill health, especially in the sense of mitigating the lack of equitable and sustainable access at the lower rungs of the population.

    In places where the health insurance scheme thrives (and it is working wonders in numerous countries) it has made health care (at least the basics) available to nearly all citizens at very affordable rates.

    This method of all-for-one and one-for-all crowd funding which has worked like magic for the rest of the world has become an albatross of sort in Nigeria. From the outset of the scheme in 2006, instead of serving as a remedy for Nigeria’s health challenges, it seems to have brought on a fresh challenge; it has become a germ for breeding corruption.

    A few examples will suffice. At the outset of the scheme about 12 years ago, the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Yayale Ahmed, was reported to have imposed his kinsman, Dr. Waziri Dogo-Mohammed, as the national coordinator. This negated the need for due process in head-hunting the rightful head to mid-wife such a strategic federal institution and start it off on a proper footing.

    And shortly after inception, stories of malfeasance began to fly. It was reported that the take-off grants from the Federal Government to NHIS worth about N50 billion (in two tranches) was never properly deployed.

    It was alleged that this initial funding was warehoused in fixed deposit accounts in several banks for years and interests therefrom worth billions of naira were being creamed off. Eventually Dr. Dogo-Muhammed left in a blaze of sleaze and acrimony.

    But the situation in the NHIS seems to get messier every year and with every new head. Fast-forward to 2015, about 10 years after NHIS was introduced in Nigeria. A certain Dr. Femi Thomas was executive secretary of the scheme and a raging malady turned tragicomic: The graft in NHIS must have wafted to the heavens, to the point that the State Security Service (SSS) had to intervene. The Ekiti office of the SSS invited Dr. Thomas and he happened to have two armed police men guarding him.

    At the entrance of the SSS office, Dr. Thomas’ police guards and the SSS personnel had a disarmament snafu. The two policemen were gunned down in the ensuing brouhaha. One of them, Sergeant Malik, died on the spot while Corporal Mough Tergu was mortally injured.

    Before this incident, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had to threaten to declare Dr. Thomas wanted after he refused several summonses. He was being wanted for money laundering. The sum of $2.2 million cash seized at a bureau de change was allegedly traced to him.

    However, between the NHIS, the EFCC, the SSS and even the Presidency, these matters of gruesome killings of innocent policemen and grand larceny at the NHIS have been shrouded in the dust of time.

    But not exactly: the virus of corruption sown at the inception of the NHIS has remained and waxes even stronger. Last week, the current executive secretary, Prof. Usman Yusuf, had to be escorted to his office by a detachment of armed policemen and men of the SSS.

    Some NHIS staff who were protesting his return to the office were tear-gassed to make way for him.

    It was not reported whether the armed men hung around the executive secretary’s office all day as he worked but the precursor to this bizarre scene was that the Governing Council of the NHIS led by Prof. Enyatu Ifenne suspended Prof Yusuf. He was accused of various forms of graft totalling billions of naira.

    Recall that last year, Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, had also suspended Prof Yusuf to allow the EFCC investigate alleged cases of fraud against him. But, as was the case last week, the Presidency reportedly overruled the supervising minister and had Prof. Yusuf back to the office pronto.

    While the crisis simmers and the scheme is at a standstill, the presidency insists Prof Yusuf is a victim of ethnic and political conspiracies. According to presidential spokesman Mallam Garba Shehu, “…whatever mistake this gentleman may have made, they have to be proved. He has launched a major reform in that institution which had blocked access to public resources.”

    This kind of mindset seems to uphold the executive secretary while indicting the Office of the Vice President (which approved the first suspension), the supervising minister and the council. It has also bred insubordination and the blatant impunity while portraying President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration as inchoate, uncoordinated as well as condoning corrupt practices.

    We note that the level of graft in the NHIS is equal in magnitude to what we have witnessed in the pension schemes. It is also noteworthy that while stories abound of massive stealing, beneficiaries for whom the scheme was designed are abandoned. Consider that about six helmsmen have passed through the NHIS in 12 years. This speaks to the state of chaos in the scheme. Nigeria has one of the least-performing health insurance schemes in Africa, achieving merely about 10 per cent coverage, having missed full coverage target in 2015.

    We urge the Federal Government to immediately investigate the disgraceful drama at NHIS and in the long term, empanel a committee to reform it. As currently constituted, it seems like a rogue’s paradise.

  • NHIS as symptom of dysfunctional federation

    On October 18, the chairman of NHIS governing council, Dr.EnyantuIfenne, announced the suspension of Professor Usman Yusuf, the Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). She also announced the decision of the council to raise an administrative panel of enquiry to probe the allegations levelled against Yusuf by workers and establish the truth or otherwise of the claims. These allegations according to newspapers reports include “highhandedness. misappropriation of funds, nepotism, misconduct, flagrant disregard for  superior authority and use of inappropriate words on a senior officer; others include encouragement of the supply of fake products and substandard goods to the agency, inflation of cost of contract by over 100 percent, dropping of the name of President Buhari for disobedience of the minister of health, fraudulent practice in the selection of insurance broker for the scheme and collection of a flat rate of N7.2 million for registration of Health Management Organisations, (HMOs). He was also accused of mismanaging N860 million budgeted by the agency for training in 2016.”

    But for Yusuf, it was corruption fighting back. He alleged there was high level of corruption in the NHIS’s Information Communications Technology (ICT) department, which allegedly fraudulently enrolled up to 23,000 people into the scheme. He also claimed 57 HMOs in the country have no valid licenses, as their accreditation had expired.

    He had the sympathy of the National Assembly lawmakers who directed the minister to allow the suspended secretary to “continue with his sanitisation programme in the NHIS”. Following a motion sponsored by Chika Okafor and 34 lawmakers at a plenary presided over by Speaker Yakubu Dogara, the House of Representatives ordered the recall of Prof. Usman Yusuf. The committee also claimed “it was aware that the minister wrote to the Executive Secretary, through the Permanent Secretary, Mrs. BintaAdamu Bello, to pay N197, 072,500 for the rehabilitation of some federal medical centres, in a contract awarded by the ministry in 2016 even when there was no budgetary provision for the payment in the NHIS’s 2016 budget.” The house also alleged that the permanent secretary had in another letter asked Yusuf to pay $37,838 to six officials of the ministry to attend a World Health Organisation conference in Geneva.”

    Some sources claimed that President Muhammadu Buhari ordered Yusuf’s reinstatement because he found the allegations against him largely unsubstantiated after evaluating the report of the panel that probed the offences. The minister for information told the nation that “the fact that he has been reinstated does not mean that the EFCC will not continue with its investigation”. The outcome of the EFCC investigation was never made public.

    But employees of NHIS along with those of Joint Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (JASCSN) and the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) saw Yusuf’s recall as an indictment of federal government’s corruption fight”.

    Suspending him again last week, the second time in eight months, Dr.Ifenne announced “if President Buhari is fully briefed about a tenth of Yusuf’s atrocities, he would throw him out! The truth, like health, has no colour, no tribe and no religion and no social class. The council stands by its decision.”

    There were newspaper reports that Yusuf forced his way back to his office on Monday this week.

    We have no reason to doubt either Ifenne and her council nor the embattled Professor Yusuf Usman. Let us also concede it to employees of NHIS, JASCSON, and MHWUN that now believes it is their right to determine who their employer employs. Of course we already know the president who suffers from a sense of self-righteousness is hardly swayed by public opinion. We can similarly not question the media owned by those who own society for doing what they do best-raising more questions than providing information to the public. Let us therefore assume they are all right since using the Maina scandal as a template, it is difficult to make sense out of actions of government that hardly talk to the people, even when it is in its interest to do so.

    But the president and his warring appointees are not the real issue. They are mere symptoms of a dysfunctional unitary system fraudulently described as federalism by those who are benefitting from our tragedy.

    For instance, NHIS is a brain child of ‘mainstreamers’. It is part of social engineering efforts of those who continue to play the ostrich instead of addressing our crisis of nation. Obasanjo who took over regional world class universities and university teaching hospitals which later became shadows of themselves officially launched the NHIS in 2005 with a mandate to enlist at least 70 per cent of Nigerians by the end of 2010. Today it covers only about 4%. As in most federal institutions, the programme enrolees experience poor service delivery. The scheme presently covered those in the civil service, the armed forces, paramilitary forces and other employees of the federal government. Since it is voluntary, only few private sector concerns such as banks participate. Of course the underprivileged majority, the destitute and children who are the most vulnerable and the target of such schemes in other societies are not covered. NHIS even with its control of more funds than it needed has been largely ineffective because of massive corruption. There have been reported cases “of collusion between agents of the regulatory body, the health care providers and health maintenance organizations”.

    In other words, the “unitary federalists”, the ‘mainstreamers’ that want to control the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the roads we pass through, our health, culture and history, cannot manage a scheme that covers only 4% of the population.

    Now let us go through memory to remind ‘mainstreamers’ and enemies of a restructured Nigeria that we once had a western regional government healthcare system that worked for the people between 1952 and 1966. Within that scheme, government provided dispensaries in every village and hamlet, manned by trained health assistants and midwives. They were often opened to school children between 8-10am after which they attended to others that needed medical attention in the community. But mainstreamers have dragged the west down from where it was in the fifties to the same level of Jos south LGA located in the outskirts of Jos city where 80% of women deliver their babies unassisted at their homes while one of their former governors shared out fifty pounds note to strangers in London.

    Today, Nigeria has the second highest maternal deaths in the world second only to India. “An estimated 830 women die from avoidable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth every day and about 58,000 death annually.” “With the new-born mortality rate of 29 deaths per 1,000 births, the global estimates rank Nigeria as the 11th highest on new-born deaths. This is partly because corruption marred the federal government’s rural community health programme initiative since the beginning of the fourth republic in 1999.

    Professor Adewole, the minister of health was once the provost of UCH, once acclaimed as one of the best three teaching hospitals in the Commonwealth of Nations which include Britain, Canada, Australia and India.  Today the UCH is a shadow of itself. LUTH is not any different. Sometimes patients wait as long as five months to see consultants. The minister who seems to be busy doing everything except finding a way to ensure 96% of Nigerian not covered by their NHIS get some joy was recently heard saying during a national television programme that our underfunded and ill-equipped federal teaching hospitals have too many consultants.

    Our problem is the dysfunctional centre. If after 50 years we do not know where we are going, we should at least be conscious of where we are coming from.

  • NHIS Crisis: Presidency orders due process

    A Presidential spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, says the presidency has stepped into the crisis rocking the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) following the purported suspension of its Executive Secretary, Prof. Usman Yusuf.

    The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that the Governing Council of the NHIS had on Oct. 18 suspended Yusuf over alleged gross misconduct.

    But, Yusuf resumed work on Friday, a day after his fresh suspension by the council.
    Some workers acting under the aegis of Association of Civil Servants of Nigeria, and Medical and Health Workers Union of NHIS, almost prevented him from gaining entrance to the office on Monday.

    Their colleagues of the Nigeria Civil Service Union in support of Yusuf mobilised themselves and countered the protest.

    The situation that almost degenerated into security breach was however contained with the intervention of a combined team of police, civil defence and state security operatives.

    However, the presidential aide, who featured on Channels TV Sunrise Daily on Tuesday in Abuja, said Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, and the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, had intervened in the NHIS crisis with a view to finding lasting solutions.

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    Shehu, who is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, noted with regret that the NHIS crisis had been ethnicised and politicised by some interest groups within and outside the agency.

    “Did the board follow due process in suspending this gentleman? There are opinions that said `no they haven’t’.

    “Again we all have to do the right thing all of the times. I don’t deny the fact that there is a lot of work to do – (the crisis) is complicated by the fact that the whole thing about the NHIS has been ethnicised and politicised.

    “Even a political party was issuing a statement on matters that are unknown to it.

    “I’ll tell you one thing, as we speak now, you know that no matter whatever mistakes this gentleman may have made, and that is to be proven because I don’t have the records to say yes or no, he has launched a major reform in that institution which had blocked access to public resources.

    “Money from the NHIS is not money belonging to government, is money taken from your salary, from my salary.

    “If we have been enlisted, we are supposed to get treatments when we fall ill then you should ask the question in 13 years of the NHIS how many Nigerians have received the treatments.

    “Yet you have HMOs, these vendors, taking N5 billion every month, money that is just being shared and somebody came and said, `look, this can’t go on’ and with strong support from this administration the N5 billion has been reduced to N1.3 billion.

    “And even at then, the administration is not satisfied. We want to see healthcare delivered to the citizens of this country. So there is a lot of work to do,’’ he said.

    The presidential aide stated that he was not in the position to challenge the allegations of wrong doings levelled against the executive secretary in some quarters.

    Shehu, however, maintained that the two chambers of the National Assembly had previously cleared the Executive Secretary of the allegations against him.

    He also dismissed the accusation of `double standard’ by the Buhari administration while dealing with cases of corruption being levelled against public servants or political office holders in the country.

    He said it was wrong to compare the case of former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Babachir Lawal, and that of the NHIS scribe.

    “Well, there is no double standard there either than to say that the pictures that the government is looking at many Nigerians perhaps may not be seeing those pictures,’’ he added.

    NAN also recalls that the minister of health (Adewole) had earlier suspended Yusuf over similar allegations on July 6, 2017.

    But the Federal Government reinstated him on Feb. 6, 2018, after an administrative panel found him not guilty of the allegations of abuse of office and maladministration.

    Yusuf officially resumed work on Feb. 8, 2018, after he was given the clean bill.

    Shehu, who also spoke extensively on the security efforts of the federal government in combating the menace of Boko Haram insurgency, said Nigeria had earned international commendations for suppressing the terrorist group.

  • Council suspends NHIS Executive Secretary indefinitely

    The Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Usman Yusuf, has been suspended indefinitely by the governing council.

    The chairperson of the NHIS governing council, Ifenne Enyanatu announced the suspension at a media briefing in Abuja on Thursday after a two-day closed door meeting.

    Mallam Sadiq Abubakar has been appointed to act in his place.

    This would not be the first time that Prof. Yusuf is placed on suspension.

    In July last year, the Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole placed him on suspension to allow administrative investigation following a directive from the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, then Acting President. “That he (Yusuf) be investigated over many allegations of mismanagement against the Executive Secretary.”

    He was however reinstated by the president without any recourse to the suspension and the allegations in February this year.

    The latest suspension, Enyanatu argued was based on various petitions and infractions against the EX.

    Consequently, she said an administrative panel would be set up to examine allegations leveled against Mr. Yusuf.

    The panel she said, would have three months to complete it’s assignment and report back to the council.

    The reason for the suspension, she said is to allow the panel an ‘infetted’ space to do a thorough investigation.

    “We consulted and got the approval of the honorable Minister of Health before this suspension. ”

     

    Details Later…

  • Masari tasks NHIS on Advocacy campaign in Katsina

    The Katsina state governor, Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari, Wednesday tasked the management of National Health Insurance Scheme-NHIS to carry out aggressive advocacy campaign to create the needed awareness level of its activities and for the people to understand its programme properly.

    Alhaji Masari who was speaking when he received the Executive secretary of the scheme, Professor Usman Yusuf during a courtesy call at government house, said the scheme, laudable as it is, could be misunderstood by the people as insurance affects the sensibilities of Muslims in general.

    The governor was however happy with the performance of a staff of NHIS who volunteered to educate people from some communities in Danja local government area, on the advantages of the scheme, which he said encouraged acceptance and participation.

    He said’’ the state government in collaboration with the state house of assembly, state chapter of Nigeria labor Congress NLC, Medical and Health Workers Union and others, to closely come up with a bill for an Agency to replicate NHIS in the state’’.

    ‘’ the new agency will no doubt reduce problems of seeking for donations for patients to buy drugs prescribed for them by Doctors in clinics and hospitals’’.

    Earlier in a remark, the Executive secretary of NHIS, Professor Usman Yusuf said the National Health Bill has been assented to by President Muhammad Buhari. He added that the bill had provided for one percent of realizable federal revenue to be expended on the health sector.

    Of the amount, he said five percent is secondary, forty five percent for primary healthcare while fifty percent is for the NHIS, stressing that although the scheme had been characterized by failures in the past, everything is being done to turn round the fortunes of NHIS.

    Professor Yusuf said he was part of the restoration agenda setting of the Masari led government even before the 2015 general elections and expressed happiness that the governor had started implementing the agenda in the renovated and upgraded hospitals across the state.

    He assured that before leaving Katsina, he will meet with relevant stakeholders to ensure the passage of the bill that would help the state to benefit from NHIS programmes.

    He announced the opening of a new zonal NHIS office in Kano to take care of Kano, Jigawa and Katsina States.

  • N14.9b ICT inflated budget causes fresh crisis in NHIS

    A fresh crisis of confidence has erupted in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

    This followed alleged inflation of 2018 budget for Information and Communication Technology (ICT), from N8.7billion to N14, 975, 032, 572.30 by the management.

    As a result of the loophole, the Governing Council of the agency was yet to approve the budget in less than three months to the end of the year.

    Also, the agency was accused of paying about N508.038million upfront to consultants above the approval limit of the Executive Secretary (ES) of NHIS, Prof. Usman Yusuf.

    About five other curious payments have caused ripples in the agency, including a N43million payment for consultancy for media and special public relations.

    These alleged infractions are contained in a petition to the Governing Council of NHIS by a former Acting Executive Secretary of NHIS, Mr. Attahiru Ibrahim.

    He asked the council to investigate allegations against Yusuf to ensure justice and fairness in the system.

    The petition was in response to a memo to the Governing Council by the ES seeking sanctions against the former Acting Executive Secretary and two other directors.

    The petition reads: “In the 2018 budget, the ES presented and inflated the ICT budget from N8.7 billion to N14,975,032,572.30.

    “We plead with the Council to request for the copies of these proposals that amounted to this cost. It will not be a bad idea if the Council embarks on the process to authenticate the veracity of these proposals and the cost implications (Appendix VII). ”

    Findings by our correspondent showed that the budget of the NHIS for 2018 has not been approved by the Governing Council as at press time.

    The NHIS had proposed N64,725,325,088.44 budget estimate for 2018.

    But it was learnt that the Governing Council was still considering the budget and it had raised some objections to certain parts of the budget for the Executive Secretary to address.

     

     

  • NHIS enrollees decry doctors’ attitude in Kaduna

    The negative attitude of some medical and healthcare personnel at Gwamna Awan General Hospital, Kakuri, Kaduna, have has been flayed by some enrollees of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the state.

    In separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Kaduna, the enrollees complained of absenteeism and lateness by doctors and healthcare staff, forcing them to wait long frustrating hours before being attended to.

    A correspondent of NAN monitoring the quality of service delivery at the NHIS unit of the facility reported that no doctor on seat to attend to patients on three different occasions he visited the section.

    According to the report, there was no doctor on seat on August 23, and after long hours of waiting, patients were refereed to another doctor in the main hospital.

    In another visit on August 31, patients were told no doctor was available to see them until September 4; and the doctor did not show up until around 12.30 p.m.

    One of the patients, Malam Yahaya Usman, said he was in the hospital for two consecutive time without seeing a doctor assigned to the NHIS section.

    “Las week I was here around 6am, but could not see NHIS doctor. After waiting for about four hours I was referred to another doctor in the main hospital, because the NHIS doctor did not show up.

    “Today (September 3), I am here since 8am and no doctor showed up. This is 12 noon and the official kept telling us that the doctor is on his way. This is frustrating. What if my case was an emergency?,’’ Usman said.

    Sharing similar experience, Mr Isaac Fishim, another patient, said he also had an experience of being referred to the main hospital after long hours of waiting because of the absence of the NHIS doctor.

    “I came here around 7.30 a.m today (Sept. 4) and this is 12 p.m and still no doctor is around to attend to us.

    “I am appealing to the hospital management to assign more doctors to the NHIS section and ensure that doctors on duty are at their duty post on time, otherwise the NHIS objective would be defeated,’’ Fishim advised.

    On his part, Mr Nathan Bulus, who is accessing the services for the first time since he enrolled in 2017, the experience was discouraging and frustrating.

    “This is the first time I am accessing the service and I have been here since 9 a.m. It is very discouraging that a patient will have to wait long before seeing a doctor,” Bulus said.

    But Mr Jeff Okoye, another patient, told NAN that it was his first experience of waiting for long hours without a doctor seeing to his health needs.

    “I have been accessing health services here and the doctors are usually on their seats at most by 9 a.m, but I am surprise that it is already 12 p.m and no doctor is around to attend to us,” Okoye said.

    Mrs Rifkatu Ayuba also said that it was the first time she had to wait four long hours before seeing a doctor.

    Reacting to the development, an official at the NHIS section told NAN on the condition of anonymity that three doctors were assigned to the section, adding however that they were all on leave.

    The official explained that one of the doctors was expected to resume today (yesterday) but that he just called that he lost a relative and was at the burial, adding “he assured us he will come soon”.

    NAN reports that the doctor later showed up around 12.30 p.m when the patients were already referred to other doctors in the main hospital.

    The Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Dogo Nok, said that he would investigate the complaints, noting that it was wrong for three doctors to go on leave at the same time.

    Nok said that although the state government was doing its best to ensure quality service delivery in the facility, the hospital facility was overstretched with dearth of medical personnel.

    He assured of improved quality service delivery, particularly at the NHIS section where enrollees pay upfront for their healthcare services.

  • NHIS enrollees decry doctors’ attitude in Kaduna

    The negative attitude of some medical and healthcare personnel at Gwamna Awan General Hospital, Kakuri, Kaduna, have has been flayed by some enrollees of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the state.

    In separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Kaduna, the enrollees complained of absenteeism and lateness by doctors and healthcare staff, forcing them to wait long frustrating hours before being attended to.

    A correspondent of NAN monitoring the quality of service delivery at the NHIS unit of the facility reported that no doctor on seat to attend to patients on three different occasions he visited the section.

    According to the report, there was no doctor on seat on August 23, and after long hours of waiting, patients were refereed to another doctor in the main hospital.

    In another visit on August 31, patients were told no doctor was available to see them until September 4; and the doctor did not show up until around 12.30 p.m.

    One of the patients, Malam Yahaya Usman, said he was in the hospital for two consecutive time without seeing a doctor assigned to the NHIS section.

    “Las week I was here around 6am, but could not see NHIS doctor. After waiting for about four hours I was referred to another doctor in the main hospital, because the NHIS doctor did not show up.

    “Today (September 3), I am here since 8am and no doctor showed up. This is 12 noon and the official kept telling us that the doctor is on his way. This is frustrating. What if my case was an emergency?,’’ Usman said.

    Sharing similar experience, Mr Isaac Fishim, another patient, said he also had an experience of being referred to the main hospital after long hours of waiting because of the absence of the NHIS doctor.

    “I came here around 7.30 a.m today (Sept. 4) and this is 12 p.m and still no doctor is around to attend to us.

    “I am appealing to the hospital management to assign more doctors to the NHIS section and ensure that doctors on duty are at their duty post on time, otherwise the NHIS objective would be defeated,’’ Fishim advised.

    On his part, Mr Nathan Bulus, who is accessing the services for the first time since he enrolled in 2017, the experience was discouraging and frustrating.

    “This is the first time I am accessing the service and I have been here since 9 a.m. It is very discouraging that a patient will have to wait long before seeing a doctor,” Bulus said.

    But Mr Jeff Okoye, another patient, told NAN that it was his first experience of waiting for long hours without a doctor seeing to his health needs.

    “I have been accessing health services here and the doctors are usually on their seats at most by 9 a.m, but I am surprise that it is already 12 p.m and no doctor is around to attend to us,” Okoye said.

    Mrs Rifkatu Ayuba also said that it was the first time she had to wait four long hours before seeing a doctor.

    Reacting to the development, an official at the NHIS section told NAN on the condition of anonymity that three doctors were assigned to the section, adding however that they were all on leave.

    The official explained that one of the doctors was expected to resume today (yesterday) but that he just called that he lost a relative and was at the burial, adding “he assured us he will come soon”.

    NAN reports that the doctor later showed up around 12.30 p.m when the patients were already referred to other doctors in the main hospital.

    The Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Dogo Nok, said that he would investigate the complaints, noting that it was wrong for three doctors to go on leave at the same time.

    Nok said that although the state government was doing its best to ensure quality service delivery in the facility, the hospital facility was overstretched with dearth of medical personnel.

    He assured of improved quality service delivery, particularly at the NHIS section where enrollees pay upfront for their healthcare services.

  • Finance minister stops NHIS from investing N25b

    Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun has stopped the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) from investing about N25billion.

    Based on what he inherited from his predecessor, Acting Executive Secretary Attahiru Ibrahim, the  Executive Secretary/ Chief Executive Officer of the NHIS Prof. Usman Yusuf, has proposed an investment of N25billion to N30billion from the scheme’s funds.

    Yusuf presented the investment plan to the NHIS Governing Council, which is yet to be convinced.

    But with over N138billion NHIS cash trapped in 17 banks and financial companies as well as in individuals’ pockets from January 2011 to date, the Federal Government is not disposed to such an investment.

    The minister also said investing the cash will amount to a violation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy.

    There have been issues between the Governing Council and the NHIS boss on the planned investments.

    The NHIS boss presented an approval given to his predecessor to invest the cash but the boss was in possession of a follow-up memo from the minister stopping the investment.

    A source said: “Both the Governing Council and the NHIS Executive Secretary are yet to agree on the investment of the funds.

    “The Council is insisting on compliance with the directives of the ministers of Finance and Health.

    “Our activities are almost being grounded. There is urgent need for intervention by the Federal Government to resolve the challenge at hand.

    “We also have about N138billion invested funds trapped. The crisis of confidence between the council and the NHIS must be urgently addressed. We got to this sorry state because the Minister of Health has been ignored by the NHIS management.”

    Although the investment was initially approved for the former Acting Executive Secretary, Attahiru Ibrahim, by the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, in line with Part IV, Section 11.4 of the National Health Insurance Act, it was reversed.

    Following advice from the Minister of Finance, the decision to stop the investment was communicated to the NHIS by the Minister of Health.

    In a memo, the Minister of Finance said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had been advised to pay Treasury Bill rates on any residual funds in the TSA with the apex bank.

    The letter drew the NHIS’s chief’s attention to the Health Minister’s correspondence dated 18th August 2017 in which you gave approval to invest in Federal Government Securities (copy attached)”

    “This approval is in direct violation of the Government’s Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy and therefore should not be implemented.

    “The Central Bank Nigeria (CBN) has been advised to pay Treasury Bill rates on any residual balance held in TSA with CBN for Investment Trusts.”

    In a follow-up letter to NHIS, the Minister of Health said: “This is to inform you that the Honorable Minster of Finance has advised against the proposal to invest NHIS residual funds in securities. The approval of such investment, she stated, will be an indirect violation of the Government’s Treasury Single Accounts (TSA) policy.

    “ In view of the above, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been advised to pay Treasury Bill rates on any residual balance held in the TSA with CBN for Investment Trusts.

    “You are therefore directed to stop all actions and processes on the investment of NHlS residual funds in securities with immediate effect and approach CBN to facilitate the payment of interest on residual funds.”

    The NHIS Executive Secretary (ES) is banking on the initial approval given to the former Acting ES, Attahiru Ibrahim, by the Minister of Health.

    He is also relying on Section 11(3) of the NHIS Act to push for the investment of the funds.

    The initial approval  reads in part: “I refer you to the National Health Insurance Act (Part IV, Section 11.4 attached) reproduced below:

    “The Scheme shall invest any money not immediately required by it in Federal Government securities or in such other securities as the Council may, with the approval of the Minister, from time to time, determine.”

    It has come to my notice that the NHIS kept residual balance not immediately required for day-to-day operations idle in Treasury Single Account with the CBN. The sum has accumulated over the years and has become somewhat sterilised as you continue to hold it in cash thereby leading to erosion in value due to inflationary trends which currently stands at 16.1%.

    “Following from above and in order to arrest this value erosion of the NHIS funds, l hereby approve as follows:

    • Commence effective immediately; starting with the sum of N10 billion naira up to the tune of N50 billion naira investments in Federal Government Securities at prevailing market determined yields.
    • Engage the services of any of the regulatory bodies certified investment counter parties; Cowry Asset Management Limited, Finmal Securities Limited or Elixir Investment Partners Limited to advise on the investment options and seamlessly execute same.
    • The investment actions and the expected returns should be captured in your 2017 budget estimates

    “lt is my expectation that the returns on these investments will be used to fund part or all of the proposed interventions in the tertiary health institutions without depleting NHIS actual funds balance. I have taken the liberty to notify the Honourable Minister of Finance, Chairman Senate Committee on Health and Chairman House Committee on Health Services.

    Section 11(3) of the NHIS Act says: “The Scheme shall from time to time, apply the funds at its disposal

    (a) to the cost of the administration of the scheme;

    (1)) to the payment fees, allowances and benefits of members of the Council;

    (c) to the payment of salaries, allowances and benefits of officers and employees of the Scheme;

    (d) for the maintenance of any property vested in the Scheme or under its administration; and

    (e) for and in connection with the objectives of the Scheme under this Act

    “The Scheme shall invest any money not immediately required by it in Federal Government securities or in such other securities as the Council may, with the approval of the Minister from time to time, determine.”

  • Treat patients with respect, NHIS urges health workers

    National Health Insurance Scheme ( NHIS ) on Tuesday urged health workers to treat patients with respect and dignity for easy access to health delivery.

    The Executive Director of NHIS, Prof. Usman Yusuf, made the appeal in an interview with journalists shortly after 42nd Annual General and Scientific Meeting organised by West African College of Physicians WACP, Nigeria chapter in Kaduna.

    According to him, NHIS has done a lot of sacrifice to the country because of the funding it gives to hospitals.

    He said that the scheme had improved access to many patients across the country and increased funding to hospitals, stressing that hospitals should, therefore, treat patients with respect and dignity as stipulated by the ethics of the medical profession.

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    The National Chairman of WACP, Dr Abel Nze-Onunu, said “Nigeria is a country with a lot of resources both human and material, but yet to get it right in the health sector.”

    He added that the meeting was about examining the problems and challenges of the health sector in a scientific manner.

    Rating maternal and infant mortality rate, he said “we have done several studies in these two areas. These areas are one of the indices we used for human development in the world.

    “Nigeria performed extremely low in these areas and one of the key reason for this conference and we are going to discuss about this extensively.”