Only 5% of Nigeria’s 208 million people were covered by the nation’s health insurance program as of 2022, according to a new analysis on the country’s insurance coverage. This is an extremely low number of Nigerians enrolled in the program.
The African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) released a report titled “Leveraging Economic Development through Human Capital in Nigeria: The Roles of Foreign Direct Investment and Health” at an in-country dissemination workshop on Policy Dialogue and Human Capital Development Project in Nigeria. The workshop was organized in conjunction with the Nigeria Institute for Social and Economic Research (NISER), which is led by Prof. Antonia Simbine.
The report’s lead researcher, Dr. Terrence Kairiza, said during the presentation that Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa, has over 200 million potential human capital, with over one-third of them being young, and a significant potential for development.
Remember that Nigeria’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was introduced in 2005 to protect households from the financial strain of paying for medical expenses out of pocket. However, the NHIS has been plagued by complaints about low-cost medications being provided to patients at hospitals and varying treatment standards for participants based on the status of the organizations they work for.
The report noted that human capital may be enhanced both internally, through investments in health and education, and externally, through Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), given that the country’s growth is out of step with its potential for human capital.
Less than 5% of Nigeria’s 208 million people have health insurance, according to the research, which highlights the country’s extremely low health insurance coverage. While uptake varies by state, it is mostly focused in important business centers. For both men and women, the formal sector has a higher insurance uptake than the informal sector.
“The most common form of health insurance among Nigerians is employer-based insurance, namely private health insurance. The general trend of health insurance uptake in Nigeria is similar to the state-by-state uptake of private health insurance.
“In 2018, employer-based insurance constituted 94% of the private health insurance market in all of the Nigerian states.
It is important to remember, nevertheless, that in order to increase adoption, policy must address the supply and demand for health insurance.
The paper states that the supply side strategies might concentrate on providing subsidies to women and workers in the informal sector in order to produce low-cost, lower premium costs, develop limited benefit insurance, and create online platforms for insurance enrollment and management.
Demand-side strategies, according to Kairiza, should prioritize supporting group insurance for informal sector associations, expediting the enrollment process, and educating workers about the benefits of health insurance.
The purpose of the policy discussion, according to Prof. Antonia Simbine, Executive Secretary of NISER, was to exchange initial research findings and policy implications with regard to the human capital development initiative in Nigeria.
She said that before the research is released, stakeholder engagement has become essential for sharing the findings and soliciting feedback.
Simbine explained that the organization works to guarantee that evidence is used to guide the creation and application of policies as well as to create human capital for faster development and shared prosperity.
She added that Nigeria’s think tank on social and economic issues, NISER, was founded since the country’s independence and is housed under the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning.
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