The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, has said it will review the systems and processes of the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, with a view to improving the health sector.
ICPC Chairman, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye made this known when he played host to the Executive Secretary of NHIS, Professor Mohammed Nasir Sambo, and some management members of the Scheme who visited the Commission recently.
Prof. Owasanoye expressed hope that the review will reduce incidences of corruption in NHIS considerably, thereby leading to the achievement of the purpose of the establishment of the Scheme by government.
The ICPC Boss said the Commission works with organizations to reduce the propensity of corruption through systems study and reviews and corruption risk assessments. This is done in collaboration with the organization under review.
He commended the effort of the leadership of NHIS to introduce technology in the operations of the Scheme as that will help reduce corruption in the organization.
Earlier in his remarks, the Executive Secretary of NHIS, Prof. M. N. Sambo mentioned some of the issues bedeviling the Scheme, most of which he inherited when he came on board in July, 2019, as human resources and core mandated-related issues.
He went on to say that some other issues that he and his team had dealt with within the period under review were issues of organizational structure, procurement and comprehensive financial management system.
Prof. Sambo stressed that his team had risen to the challenge and have resolved most of the issues and even gone as far as recovering about several billions of Naira from health maintenance organizations (HMOs).
He also said the Scheme has come up with a new initiative that will allow people in diaspora to pay premium for their relatives in Nigeria.
The NHIS was set up in 1999 to ensure access to quality healthcare for all Nigerians.
