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New NHIS boss unveils three-point agenda to revive scheme

By Stanley Akpunonu
18 July 2019   |   2:25 am
Determined to revive the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the newly appointed Executive Secretary, Prof. Mohammed Nasir Sambo, has unveiled a three-point agenda.

Determined to revive the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the newly appointed Executive Secretary, Prof. Mohammed Nasir Sambo, has unveiled a three-point agenda.

Sambo unveiled his three-point rebranding agenda during his maiden interactive session with staff of the scheme at its corporate headquarters in Abuja. He said it has been mainly packaged to rebrand the scheme and resolve its image crisis and the consequent loss of public confidence.

The three-point agenda, according to a statement signed by Head, Media & Public Relations, NHIS, Mr. Ayo Osinlu, include: restoring value system that will transform NHIS into a credible result-driven organisation; engendering transparency and accountability in the entire operation of the scheme; and accelerating the drive towards achieving access to quality healthcare for all Nigerians.

Sambo also pledged to be systematic and purposeful in building bridges to reposition the agency to take its rightful place in the nation’s healthcare landscape. The Professor of Health Policy and Management, with a huge bias for healthcare financing, said the core mandate of the NHIS is to provide easy access to healthcare for all Nigerians. He assured the nation that under his watch at the scheme, national interest would rank above every consideration at all times.

Towards this end, Sambo promised to carry everyone along in the process of rebuilding the scheme and unlock its potentials to enhance the socio-economic well-being of Nigerians.

According to him, stakeholders of the scheme, who he described as interdependent, will be inspired to close ranks, as the success of one depends on the success of the others. He, therefore, called for the close cooperation of all stakeholders, stressing his readiness to work with everyone whose focus is on the mandate of the scheme.

Sambo assured staff of the organization: “The detail elements of the rebranding agenda will soon be unveiled after undertaking a rapid assessment of the situation in the scheme. Thereafter, a series of activities to actualize this vision will follow.” Sambo, a Fellow of the West African College of Physicians was until his appointment the Provost of the College of Medicine, Kaduna State University, and also was formerly in the services of NHIS, where he rose to the rank of Assistant General Manager before leaving for Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria to pursue a successful academic career.

He lamented the crisis that had beset the NHIS, impairing its capacity to deliver creditably on its core mandate, which he traced to the inception of the scheme.“I know very well that the problems of NHIS are as old as NHIS itself,” he said. Sambo added: “I am familiar with the terrain. I was part and parcel of its construction. I know the bends and the potholes. I know all the essential landmarks and I am determined to navigate through.”

The public health technocrat, however, called on everyone in the organization to “sheath his/her sword and observe perpetual seize-fire for the benefit of the teeming Nigerian who are looking up to the Scheme for healthy and economically productive lives.”

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