Prof. Nasir Sambo, who is the Executive Secretary, National Health Insurance Scheme, has said the institution has recovered N5bn funds missing from the scheme.
He also said the NHIS had capacity to recover more missing funds.
Sambo said this while delivering a presentation entitled ‘Emerging post-COVID – economic challenges in the health sector and management strategies’ during the 16th annual scientific conference of the Healthcare Providers’ Association of Nigeria in Lagos on Tuesday.
He said, “Other things we have done in the health insurance is our ability to track and recover the funds of the NHIS.
“When I got to the health insurance scheme, billions of naira were missing for no just viable reasons.
“And we have been moving from pillar to post, to the Accountant-General’s office, to the EFCC, and what we have done so far, we have been able to recover N5bn from the money and it has come to the coffers of the NHIS.
“And we have prospects to recover billions in this year and next year’s budgets.
“And once we are getting this money, I am assuring you the landscape of the NHIS will change completely.”
He said that statistics revealed more than 82.9 million were living in poverty, citing data from the National Bureau of Statistics in 2019.
The World Bank also projected that 92.6 million Nigerians would be living in poverty by 2022, he added.
He said, “Poverty limits access to healthcare and ill-health worsens poverty.
“Nigeria is battling with rising cases of NCDs and infectious diseases – malaria, meningitis, lassa fever and now COVID-19.”
He said despite all these, Nigeria was committed to achieving universal health coverage by 2030 in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.
