Health Insurance extended to cover patience with HIV, TB

L-R: Tunji Oyebayo, head, Marketing, Universal Insurance Plc; Casmir Audu, head, Lagos Regional Office of Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD); Olugbenga Ajayi, head, Corporate Communication of PTAD; Nkechi Naeche-Esezobor, chairperson of Nigerian Association of Insurance and Pension Editors (NAIPE); Aisha Abubakar Haruna, acting director, Lagos Regional Office of National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA); and Jeff Duru, managing annual general meeting of NAIPE held in Lagos.

The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) says it has expanded the national health insurance scheme to cover some extreme health cases including people with HIV (PLHIV) and for TB patients, with pilots under way in four states.

This was disclosed by Dr Kelechi Ohiri, the director general, NHIA at the annual general meeting of the Nigerian Association of Insurance and Pension Editors, NAIPE in Lagos.

Ohiri, who was represented by Aisha Abubakar Haruna, acting director, Lagos Regional Office of the NHIA announced that the health insurance now covers no fewer than 20 million Nigerians up from 16.8 million in 2023.

This is already achievement of 99 percent of the 2027 presidential target, noting that the Authority achieved an additional 800,000 beneficiaries who joined the basic health care provision fund, bringing the total to 2.6 million as of May 2025.

Ohiri also stated that the NHIA embarked on addressing drug shortages and care delays via the multi-project strategy.

He said, “NHIA has focused on expanding health insurance coverage, improving quality of care and protecting the rights of enrollees while strategically and creatively deploying health insurance to save lives in a way that contributes and sustains significant benefit to the health sector.

“As of June last month, NHIA has achieved 20 million enrollees in the health insurance. This was the combined efforts of the State Health Insurance agencies, health maintenance organizations and the National Health Insurance Scheme.”

As a matter of fact, we have exceeded the mandates that was been given to us by the president. He gave us a target, which we exceeded in June. We have a significant jump from 16.8 million Nigerians enrolled in 2023. By June 2025, we have hit 20 million. We have also embarked on addressing drug shortages and care delays via the multi-project strategy.”

The NHIA DG noted that from 2024 to 2025, NHIA has strategically intervened in the revision of tariffs revising the accreditation processes and mandating one-hour limit on care authorisation while mitigating any previous issues for medicine shortages, denial, and delay in issue codes and provider payment delays.

Modestus Anaesoronye

Modestus Anaesoronye is a leading Nigerian financial journalist with over two decades of experience reporting on the insurance and pension sectors across Nigeria and West Africa. He has held key editorial positions at major national media outlets, including The Comet, The Nation, and Financial Standard, and currently serves as a Senior Financial Analyst at BusinessDay Media Ltd. A widely travelled reporter, he has covered industry developments in more than 14 countries across Africa and Asia. Anaesoronye is a multiple award-winning journalist, honoured several times as Insurance Journalist of the Year and Pension Journalist of the Year by recognised industry bodies, including PensionScope and the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp), among others.