With over 102.4 million people living in extreme poverty in Nigeria according to the World Poverty Clock, the Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Professor Sambo Muhammed, during a visit to the corporate head office of Media Trust Limited, said the lack of proper healthcare is the major cause of poverty in the nation.

Muhammed, who called on every Nigerian to subscribe to at least one form of health insurance coverage, said that in doing so the much-needed funds to cater for everyone will be made available. He said, ‘If you have a very large pool, it helps other people to enjoy healthcare irrespective of their contributions. It is all about risk-taking. It is about risk pooling in one basket’. ‘The current contributions are from people from the formal sector and if there is no pool, there will be no health coverage’, he added.

He also stressed that one of the NHIS‘s key focus entails building an efficient Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure to ensure transparency of its dealings.

Source: Daily Trust

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