A new report focusing on Nigeria’s health insurance coverage has said that just 10.4 million out of a population of 208 million Nigerian have health insurance. The report showed an alarmingly low level of Nigerians enrolled in the scheme, stating that as of 2022, only 5 percent of Nigeria’s 208 million population was captured under the country’s health insurance scheme. The report titled, “Leveraging Economic Development through Human Capital in Nigeria: The Roles of Foreign Direct Investment and Health”, was released by the African Economic Research Consortium AERC at an in-country dissemination workshop on Policy Dialogue and Human Capital Development Project in Nigeria, organised in conjunction with the Prof. Antonia Simbine-led Nigeria Institute for Social and Economic Research, NISER. Presenting the report, Lead Researcher, Dr Terrence Kairiza said Nigeria as the most populous country in Africa has a vast pool of potential human capital of over 200 million people with over one-third of them being youths and a great capacity for development.
Nigeria’s National Health Insurance Scheme NHIS was launched in 2005 to shield households from the financial burden of out-of-pocket health payments but the scheme has been dogged with complaints of cheap drugs offered to enrolees at hospitals and different grade of treatments for enrolees depending on the grade of the agencies they work for. Noting that the growth of the country is inconsistent with its human capital potentials, the report stated that human capital could be developed by external means through Foreign Direct Investments FDI and through internal channels such as investments in health and education. “Nigeria’s health insurance coverage remains alarmingly low, with less than 5 per cent of its 208 million population having any form of health insurance. Uptake varies across states, but is largely concentrated in major business hubs. The uptake of insurance is also higher for the formal sector versus the informal sector and form men versus women.
“Private health insurance, particularly employer-based insurance, is the most prominent type of health insurance among Nigerians. Nigeria’s overall health insurance uptake pattern mirrors the private health insurance uptake across States. Employer-based insurance accounted for 94 per cent of private health insurance uptake across Nigerian States as of 2018″, the report stated. While it commended government efforts at making health insurance compulsory for all citizens, the report says results have been modest, especially for informal sector workers and women. Consequently, to boost uptake, policies must tackle both supply and demand sides of health insurance. According to the report, the supply side policies could focus on, offering subsidies to informal sector workers and women to reduce premium costs, developing low-cost, limited benefit insurance products and creating online platforms for insurance enrolment and management. He said on the other hand, demand-side policies should concentrate on educating informal sector workers about health insurance benefits, streamlining enrolment processes and encouraging group insurance for informal sector associations.
Executive Secretary of NISER, Prof. Antonia Simbine said the policy dialogue was to share preliminary research findings and policy implications of the research output on the human capital development project in Nigeria. According to her, it had become critical to have a stakeholder engagement to share the findings and allow comments before the research is published. She stressed that NISER, which is now under the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, was established since independence as Nigeria’s think-thank on social and economic issues. Simbine said the agency which conducts economic policy-relevant researches for government at national and subnational levels, seeks to ensure the use of evidence to inform policy design and implementation as well as building human capital for accelerated inclusive development and shared prosperity.
