NHIS, NIGCOMSAT Partner to Improve Operations
- Posted in News
The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) will partner with the Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT) to equip its soon-to-be established 10,000 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) across the electoral wards of the country with communication facilities. The agreement was made when the NHIS Executive Secretary, Femi Akingbade visited the Managing Director, NIGCOMSAT, Abimbola Alale, in Abuja recently. During the visit, the ES described communication as crucial to the operations of his agency. He said the partnership should resolve the issues of speed, accuracy, integrity and safety of database, which are fundamental to the effective registration and administration components of his agency. Akingbade also informed that the NHIS is committed to take advantage of every opportunity in the country to make things easy in the critical area of its operations. Making reference to the nationwide spread of the NHIS’ services considering the fact that enrollees of the Scheme are spread in all parts of the country, the NHIS boss stressed the need for the agency to be able to communicate with its various stakeholders real-time at all times. This, he said, is particularly so as the agency requires to monitor and receive feedback from beneficiaries and service providers under its watch to be able to discharge its regulatory roles in the industry credibly. Responding, Abimbola Alale said that government has a responsibility to provide social services to its people. She described NHIS as the tool of the Nigerian government for the purpose of ensuring that all citizens have access to qualitative and affordable healthcare services. She also disclosed that NIGCOMSAT has already designed some programmes and does have facilities that could be customised for the Scheme to meet its communication, monitoring and mapping requirements. A joint technical team of both agencies was set up to determine the technical details of the collaboration.
