Stakeholders have called for increased enrolment in Nigeria’s health insurance scheme, warning that about 85 per cent of the country’s population remains without financial protection against healthcare costs.

The call came at the unveiling of Ultimate Health HMO’s U-Health GIFSHIP (Group, Individual and Family Social Health Insurance Programme) in Lagos, where the organisation launched a new health insurance package for the informal sector to expand access to maternal, cancer and other essential healthcare services in support of the Federal Government’s drive towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

The event brought together healthcare professionals, regulators, healthcare providers, market leaders, financial institutions and business associations to discuss strategies for extending health insurance coverage to millions of Nigerians outside the formal sector.

Speaking at the event, the Managing Director of Ultimate Health HMO, Dr Lekan Ewenla, said the initiative was designed to make quality healthcare more affordable and accessible to Nigerians who have remained excluded from the formal health insurance system.

According to him, the programme is built on the NHIA-approved Federal Civil Service Health Insurance Programme introduced in 2005, which currently provides healthcare coverage for more than 11 million Nigerians, while Ultimate Health HMO manages healthcare services for nearly 300,000 beneficiaries under the scheme.

Ewenla noted that despite the programme’s success within the formal sector, only about 15 per cent of Nigerians currently have health insurance coverage, leaving the remaining 85 per cent, mostly traders, artisans, transport operators and owners of small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs), to pay for healthcare out of pocket.

He said the 2022 amendment to the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) Act, which made health insurance mandatory for all Nigerians, prompted the company to adapt the Federal Civil Service Health Insurance benefit package to suit the needs of workers in the informal sector.

“Our goal is not simply to sell health insurance but to make quality healthcare more affordable, more accessible and more equitable for every Nigerian,” he said.

He added that the programme introduces dual identity cards for enrollees, strengthens customer relationship management through digital technology and establishes provider networks within commercial clusters to make healthcare more convenient for beneficiaries.

Presenting an overview of the product, the Head of Medical Services at Ultimate Health HMO, Dr Chima Madu, said U-Health GIFSHIP was developed to bridge the healthcare access gap for Nigerians in the informal sector by providing affordable, comprehensive healthcare services.

Madu identified maternal and child healthcare as one of the programme’s major strengths, noting that it includes antenatal care, normal and assisted deliveries, caesarean sections, postnatal care and specialised neonatal services such as incubator care and phototherapy.

He added that cancer treatment would be supported through the NHIA cost-sharing arrangement with Roche and other approved interventions.

Delivering a goodwill message on behalf of the NHIA Lagos State Office, the State Coordinator, Dr. Bethuel-Kasimu Abraham, described the initiative as timely and consistent with the Authority’s mandate of achieving Universal Health Coverage.

He urged Nigerians to embrace health insurance as protection against unforeseen medical expenses rather than regarding it as an unnecessary financial burden.

Similarly, the Market Leader of Computer Village, Mrs. Adesola Azeez, welcomed the scheme and appealed for flexible payment arrangements that would enable traders and artisans to pay their annual premiums in instalments.