NHIA Expands Health Insurance To Cover HIV, TB Patients
The Director General of National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr Kelechi Ohiri, said the organisation has expanded the national health insurance scheme to cover people with HIV (PLHIV) and Tuberculosis patients, noting that the only long-term pilot project has already started in four states.
Ohiri, who was represented by Mrs. Aisha Abubakar Haruna, acting Director, Lagos regional office of the NHIA stated this on Tuesday at the annual general meeting of the Nigerian Association of Insurance and Pension Editors (NAIPE) in Lagos.
He also announced that the health insurance now covers more than 20 million Nigerians up from 16.8 million in 2023, even as he explained 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.
To ensure quality service delivery, the NHIA has 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 by the state health insurance agencies, health maintenance organizsations and the National Health Insurance Scheme.
As a matter of fact, we have exceeded the mandates that have 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 by 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 boss noted that from 2024 to 2025, the agency has strategically intervened in the revision of tariffs revising the accreditation processes and mandating one hour limit on care authorisation, while mitigating previous issues for medicine shortages, denial, delay in issue codes and provider payment delays.
