Stakeholders advocate universal health coverage, more funding

• … As Police, others receive outstanding performance healthcare award

By Haruna Salami

Stakeholders in the health sector have made strong case for more funding of the sector to attain universal health coverage for Nigerian.

The call was made at a “Health Insurance and Managed Care National Leadership Award of Excellence” 2026 with the theme “Building a Robust Capacity for Universal Health Coverage held at the Rockview Hotel, Abuja.

Award winners include the Nigeria Police Force which received Outstanding Performance Award for having the largest enrollees in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

Presenting the award to the Police at a colourful ceremony in Abuja, former Executive Secretary, National Health Insurance Scheme, now called National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr. Mohammed Leki underscored the importance of health insurance in national development.

Receiving the award on behalf of the Inspector General of Police, Olatunji Disu, AIG Nkechi Eze, Director, Medical Services, Nigeria Police Force said the award shows that “the Police have actually been doing well in serving police officers, the members of their families and suspects that we keep in our detention places.”

AIG Eze said: “we know that as a policeman you cannot carry out your functions effectively without being healthy, and our directorate is there to ensure that all his health care needs are met as well as his family, including his mental health and physical health too.”

Further underscoring the importance of the award as it relates to universal health coverage in the country, AIG Eze noted that the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has done a lot to make health care accessible to everybody, including police officers as beneficiaries of the programme.

She noted that: “If you come to the Nigeria Police Force, we use National Health Insurance Scheme, and it is helping our officers not to pay for our health services out of pocket.

“So, we know that health care is accessible to a policeman from whatever rank to the topmost rank.”

She said many Nigerians may not know that “Nigeria Police Force has one of the largest health insurance enrollees because most of our officers are under the scheme and urged other institutions and individuals to key into it.

“Let us know it is working. I keep telling everybody, health insurance is working. What we need to do is ensure that it works better from where it is. It is a work in progress.

“Today it may be here, tomorrow it will be much better. So we’re hoping for it to be much better, AIG Eze said.

Other awardees include Ondo State Agency Award as “best agency in benefit package management” and State Insurance Agency CEO of the Year 2026, which went to Dr. Biodun Oyeneyin, the DG.

Sokoto State Agency Award was for “Excellence in Social Health Protection Award 2026” which was received by Yusuf Abu Abdulkarim on behalf of Sokoto State Contributory Health Insurance Agency.

Kebbi, Lagos, Yobe, Imo, Cross River, Delta, Akwa Ibomand Bayelsa states and the FCT all won awards in different areas of health insurance promotion.

Dr. Leki, who gave the keynote address said in WHO parlance, the best way to pay for health care is through health insurance and commended Nigeria for having a very reliable and effective institution and very good employees.

He said Nigerians should count ourselves lucky that we have NHIA because many countries and governments tried and failed.

He said: “If you read the history of the United States, one of the major problems in the U.S. is the NHS. It breaks down and breaks up governments. It can just collapse the government overnight. And in the U.S., the most advanced country in the world, the health insurance is the biggest problem.

“ Even though health contributes to about 25% of the GDP, that is huge from one sector alone, but getting the health insurance on that way is a huge and thorny problem.

“During President Clinton’s administration, the wife took on the very difficult and bold task of trying to champion health for all, or health insurance in the U.S.”

She failed for a number of reasons, adding “it was President Barack Obama who brought about the Affordable Health Care, which is popularly now called as the Obamacare. So for the first time, they managed to patch it together.”

Leki underscored the importance of the Institute of Health Insurance and Managed Care of Nigeria (IMIMN) because without the Institute, the whole ecosystem lacks health care financing, managed care, health insurance.

“In Nigeria, we know better that the Institute is an important pillar for that subsector of Nigeria to be able to rise up to expectation; the Institute is not just an Institute by name, it is a repository of knowledge.

“Experienced members go to the institution for all forms of capacity building.

“You have individuals that have excelled, that can lend their voices and experiences to promoting the industry of managed care in Nigeria,”Leki said.

Chairman of the occasion, Dr. Hope Uweja, former Nigeria Country Director, overseeing health financing and universal health coverage projects made strong case for more funding of the health sector.

Dr. Uweja, while comparing Nigeria to Rwanda revealed that Nigeria has 10 percent in universal health coverage, Rwanda has 90 percent.

He urged stakeholders in the health sector to work harder to achieve universal health coverage, wondering “if we are organising this type of programme and some key stakeholders are not here”, it speaks volume about their commitment.

The consensus among stakeholders in healthcare at the event was that “it is better you have health insurance and don’t need it than to need it and you don’t have it”.