By Hassan Zaggi
The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has entered into partnership with the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) in order to enroll lawyers in health insurance.
A committee has been inaugurated to achieve that.
This was the climax of the meeting between the Executive Secretary of the NHIS, Prof. Mohammed Sambo and a 3-member delegation led by the NBA President, Mr. Olumide Apata, in Abuja, Wednesday.
Speaking, Prof. Sambo underscored the imperatives of working together with the NBA, stressing that partnership between the two bodies held prospects of going beyond enrolment of lawyers to members of the association serving as opinion molders for the Scheme.
Prof. Sambo expressed optimism that steps taken by the NBA will inspire other professional bodies to consider similar initiative.
He further observed that the e-NHIS platform recently approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) will put the Scheme’s business processes on the cutting edge of technology when it comes on stream, adding that the scheme was in cooperation with international partners to build capacity of staff of Scheme.
Earlier, the NBA President, Mr. Apata expressed confidence that the partnership between both organisations was bound to yield better quality of life for members of the NBA.
He noted that health insurance remained the best option for avoiding paying out-of-pocket for healthcare services.
According to him, although the members of the NBA already had life insurance policy whereby relations received specified sum of money at the death of members, there was the need for health insurance to ensure good quality of life for members of the association.
A statement by the NHIS Spokesman, Emmanuel Ononokpono, quoted the NBA President as saying that the association has about 100,000 members nationwide which he considered significant to warrant healthcare coverage.
