Katsina Commences Enrollment of 25,982 Retirees into Healthcare Scheme 

Francis Sardauna in Katsina 

The Katsina State Government has commenced the enrollment of 25,982 retirees into the state healthcare contributory scheme in order to alleviate the plight of the senior citizens.

The state Governor, Aminu Bello Masari, who flagged off the enrolment exercise, Tuesday, said the initiative would tackle the retirees’ out-of-pocket expenditures on their health and that of their families.

The outgoing governor explained that the enrolment of the retirees into the contributory healthcare scheme was in line with the national drive for achieving universal health coverage.

He called on retirees in the state who are qualified to be enrolled into the scheme to come out en-mass and register in order to access affordable, qualitative and efficient healthcare services.

In his remarks, the Director-General of the Katsina State Contributory Healthcare Management Agency (KTSCHMA), Mohammad Tukur-Safana, said the programme was a free healthcare plan for the state and local government retirees.

He said: “The retiree healthcare programme is a free healthcare plan for all retirees of the local and state governments. This is a kind gesture by the state government to cater for the health of retired civil servants through the provision of basic minimum package of health services at primary and secondary levels of care.”

He added that the beneficiaries of the scheme totalling 25,982 would access healthcare in all the KTSCHMA accredited healthcare facilities across the 34 local government areas of the state.

Tukur-Safana explained that since the commencement of the agency, it has successfully enrolled 56,373 civil servants with 219,522 dependants, totalling 275,795.

He said the agency also registered 83,620 beneficiaries into the informal sector programme of the scheme “that is 231 per each of the 361 political wards under the basic healthcare provision fund”.