FG Contributes N500m for Basic Healthcare Provision in Nasarawa

Igbawase Ukumba in Lafia

The Federal Ministry of Health has contributed over N500 million into the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund for Nasarawa State.

Deputy governor of the state, Dr Emmanuel Akabe, disclosed this yesterday in Lafia at the official flag-off of access to healthcare services under the formal sector programme of the Nasarawa State Health Insurance Scheme.

Akabe, however, said the state on its part also made a contribution of N141 million into the fund, which meant therefore that the most vulnerable in the society could enroll into the programme without need to pay.

He said, “Facilities are already available in the 147 wards of Nasarawa State where there are designated health facilities that one can go to access basic healthcare services.

“Records available to us show that as far as Universal Health Coverage is concerned in Nigeria, Nasarawa State is one of the leading states.”

The deputy governor concluded that the state has started contributing 0.5 per cent of its consolidated revenue into the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund, maintaining that the state was one of the first states that had done that in Nigeria.

Giving a brief about the state insurance scheme, the Executive Secretary of the Nasarawa State Health Insurance Agency (NASHIA, Dr. Gaza Gwamna, disclosed that the agency has been able to enroll over 5,000 principals.

“What it means is that most of them have dependants. So, we are at the margin of over 30,000. Our target for this particular phase is 26,000 workers. So by the grace of God, we are almost about 30 per cent.

“Capitations are also being paid to all the facilities that registered with us. And almost all of them have one or two enrollees that have chosen them, and they were not limited to only the public facilities,” Gwamna explained.