Don’t divert NHIS fund to build health centres – Wabba

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, has urged the federal government not to divert the Nigeria National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) funds towards the building of health centres.   Wabba stated this when the Executive Secretary of the NHIS, Prof Usman Yusuf, paid him a visit recently at Labour House, Abuja. Wabba said […]

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, has urged the federal government not to divert the Nigeria National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) funds towards the building of health centres.  
Wabba stated this when the Executive Secretary of the NHIS, Prof Usman Yusuf, paid him a visit recently at Labour House, Abuja.
Wabba said that the congress had written on several occasions against the use of the fund to build primary health care centres in the country. 
 He said, “We are still on our position that those funds should be used strictly as applied in line with the provision of the mandate of the law establishing the National Health Insurance Scheme.’’
Wabba argued that any attempt  to divert the fund which is not a revenue was wrong as it was a fund contributed from the earnings of workers to be able to provide health service.
He also appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari not to approve the channeling of the scheme fund to the TSAs, saying it was a specialized fund that was meant to provide health care service to workers in terms of needs which should not be subjected  to prolonged  administrative process. 
Earlier, the NHIS boss, Yusuf said that presently the contribution that the agency had was from federal government workers which does not cover all Nigerians.
He assured that he would work with the state governors, unions, community leaders, among other to ensure that all Nigerians including the vulnerable were included in the scheme.