I’ll reposition NHIS for workers benefit — Sambo

The newly appointed Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Professor Mohammed Nasir Sambo, has pledged to reposition the agency to benefit workers, who are the contributors to the scheme and Nigerians.

Besides, the new executive secretary said he would be systematic and purposeful in building bridges to reposition the scheme; and to take its rightful place in the nation’s healthcare landscape.

Professor Sambo, who has just resumed duties at the NHIS, spoke on how to reposition the scheme during his maiden interactive session with the staff at its corporate headquarters in Abuja.

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The Professor of Health Policy and Management, with a huge bias for Healthcare Financing, noted the core mandate of NHIS, which he said, is to provide easy access to healthcare for all Nigerians, and assured the nation that under his watch at the Scheme, national interest will rank above every consideration at all times.

Towards this end, he other to carry everyone along in the process of rebuilding the Scheme and unlocking its potentials to enhance the socio-economic well-being of Nigerians.

According to him, stakeholders of the Scheme, who he described as interdependent, will be inspired to close ranks, as the success of one depends on the success of the others.

He, therefore, called for the close cooperation of all stakeholders, stressing his readiness to work with everyone whose focus is on the mandate of the Scheme.

The new NHIS Boss unveiled his 3-point Rebranding Agenda, which he said has been mainly packaged to rebrand the Scheme and resolve its image crisis and the consequent loss of public confidence.

He listed the 3-Point Agenda to include: Restoring value system that will transform NHIS into a credible result-driven organisation, Engendering transparency and accountability in the entire operation of the Scheme, and Accelerating the drive towards achieving access to quality healthcare for all Nigerians.

Professor Sambo further assured staff of the organisation that “the detail elements of the rebranding agenda will soon be unveiled after undertaking rapid assessment of the situation in the Scheme. Thereafter, a series of activities to actualize this vision will follow”.

The Fellow of the West African College of Physicians was until his appointment the Provost of the College of Medicine, Kaduna State University, and also was formerly in the services of NHIS, where he rose to the rank of Assistant General Manager before leaving for ABU, Zaria to pursue a successful academic career.

He lamented the crisis that had beset the Scheme, impairing its capacity to deliver creditably on its core mandate, which he traced to the inception of the Scheme.

“I know very well that the problems of NHIS are as old as NHIS itself”, he said.

He however gave the assurance that he was committed to take the Scheme to the promised land.

He added “I am familiar with the terrain. I was part and parcel of its construction. I know the bends and the pot holes.

I know all the essential landmarks and I am determined to navigate through”.

The Public Health technocrat however called on everyone in the organisation to “sheath his/her sword and observe perpetual seize-fire for the benefit of the teeming Nigerian who are looking up to the Scheme for healthy and economically productive lives”.