EditorNATIONAL Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to enroll members of the bar under the Group, Individual and Family Social Health Insurance Policy (GIFSHIP) of the scheme.
GIFSHIP is a health insurance package that is taken up and paid for by groups, individuals and families not covered by other NHIS platforms, but is under NHIS management.
During the signing of the MoU in Abuja on Thursday with NHIS, the NBA presented a cheque of N15 million to the Executive Secretary, NHIS, Prof. Mohammed Sambo, to officially register 1000 members on the health insurance scheme.
The President of NBA, Olumide Akpata, disclosed that the organization expects access to quality health care for lawyers through the NHIS GIFSHIP platform.
He said, “This is very important for us at the NBA to be able to access quality healthcare and we see the NHIS as one channel to achieve this. So we have started with 1000 of our members. It is just the beginning, we have over 100,000 members across the country.”
He noted that NBA was happy on the partnership with NHIS, adding that the MoU would ensure that the programme remained sustainable.
On his part, Sambo noted that the MoU between NHIS and NBA was a landmark achievement for the NHIS which has been campaigning for more Nigerians to register under the health scheme.
He said, “The event of today is very significant in that our drive towards attaining universal health coverage is gaining momentum.”
Sambo however, noted that the development of the GIFSHIP insurance platform was meant to give everyone opportunity to join the health insurance scheme irrespective of where they work.
He disclosed that Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved a proposal that was presented by the NHIS management. The proposal would be to embark on massive infrastructure development in all its offices nationwide and ensure that the use of digital devices was deployed for its operations to become automated in the next few months.
Sambo added that with the deployment of the digital infrastructure, beneficiaries can sit in the comfort of their homes and register for the health insurance scheme online.
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