Osinbajo says all Nigerians must have access to health insurance scheme

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has advocated a compulsory health insurance scheme for all Nigerians.

He said this will enable citizens have access to quality and affordable healthcare services.

Osinbajo said this on Wednesday at the ‘Civic Innovation Lab launch-pad for social innovators’ event held in Abuja.

He said although the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is useful, it is unable to pull resources together to cater to others not yet enrolled.

He said the government is investing in education and healthcare and had supported states with N1.91 trillion.

The vice-president, however, added that even with such funding, only a “functional and all-embracing” national health insurance scheme could provide adequate healthcare for citizens.

He said Nigeria is endowed with enormous resources and creativity “which could be harnessed for the country’s good with leadership that has integrity”.

According to him, most of the problems in the country centre on corruption due to lack of integrity.

“If 70 percent of our resources went into where they were supposed to go into, we would not be where we are today,” he said.

“I think that many people understand that Nigerians are one of the most creative people in the world; many people know that we have one of the best minds but people are worried when it comes to integrity issues.”

Osinbajo said one of the lessons he learned since becoming the vice-president is the difficulty in getting things done in the Nigerian environment.

“I think there is a huge gap in a stated objective and getting it done, and the reason for that is because we are not paid on timelines, efficiency or productivity in a positive sense,” the vice-president said.

“The best type of investment we can make is to push people to that kind of training in spite of your academic qualification.”