Less than 20 million Nigerians have health insurance – NHIA

The Director-General of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Kelechi Ohiri, said that the NHIA has surpassed its 2024 target and achieved 95 per cent of the 2027 presidential target with 19.2 million Nigerians enrolled in the health insurance scheme.

The DG disclosed this at a Universal Health Coverage (UHC ) day commemoration programme to reflect Nigeria’s progress towards attaining universal health coverage in Abuja.

“We are proud to announce that 19.2 million Nigerians have been covered by health insurance.This surpasses our 2024 target and places us within striking distance of achieving 95 per cent of the 2027 presidential target,” said Ohiri.

He added that the agency had expanded the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF) and partnered with state health insurance agencies to provide affordable and accessible healthcare for vulnerable Nigerians.

Although the NHIA DG considers this a milestone, this figure depicts a gloomy picture of the Nigerian health sector. Over 190 million Nigerians without health insurance are forced to rely on out-of-pocket spending to meet their healthcare needs.

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The country’s persistent inflation and increasing poor population have made access to healthcare even worse for the over 190 million others who do not have health insurance. This is not the only healthcare challenge confronting Nigerians.

Nigeria’s health sector suffers from underfunding, leaving many Nigerians to pay the price for the government’s failure.

Since Nigeria became a party to the Abuja Declaration, a policy of the African Union which mandates member-states to allocate 15% of their annual budget to healthcare, in 1999, Nigeria has failed to meet this target.

The country allocated 5.46% of its 2024 budget to health.

A report by the National Bureau of Statistics has also revealed that an abysmal two-thirds of the health facilities in Nigeria are well-equipped.