To promote health access for all Lagos state residents, the Joint Learning Agenda for Universal Health Coverage (JLAUHC) and the Lagos State Civil Society Participation for Development (LACSOP) have urged for the implementation of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) Act 2022.
The groups made the call during a Stakeholder Engagement Meeting for the Baseline Assessment of the Lagos State Alignment with the NHIA Act 2022, which held at the office of the Lagos State Health Management Agency (LASHMA).
Barrister Ayo Adebusoye, the Chairman and Board of Trustees of LACSOP while speaking about the scorecard template, which captures priority advocacy issues, called for synergy between LASHMA and NHIA on roles and operational guidelines.
Adebusoye explained that the scorecard development would help to achieve effective implementation of NHIA Act at national and sub-national levels, adding that it would help to assess the level of compliance with the provisions of the Act at sub-national levels.
He also emphasised the need for more data reporting, management, accountability and transparency in basic minimum health packages for the poor and vulnerable individuals.
Olayide Akanni, the co-coordinator of Joint Learning Agenda for Universal Health Coverage, (JLA4UHC), said, the Joint Learning Programme is a Civil Society led initiative, that was kicked started through support from global donors. The whole idea was to build the capacity of CSOs across 20 countries in Africa, to be able to lead advocacy initiatives around Universal Health Coverage (UHC), Akanni alluded.
In Nigeria, the co-coordinator said, she and her partner came up with advocacy around health financing. “We have trained CSOs to understand the role of insurance in health financing. We want to create awareness about health insurance, because from the feedback that we got from CSOs, citizens are reluctant to take up health insurance, due to myths and misconceptions. We needed to find a way to correct these myths and misconceptions.”
Akanni said JLA4UHC is presently working in two states to assess them in terms of how compliance they are with the provisions of the NHIA Act, while revealing that, “We are currently working in Lagos and Kano states. We are assessing how compliance the states are with the provisions of the act; what are the gaps, interventions and how can CSOs support the activities that are happening at the states level. For us to get these information, we have been able to come up with a set of tools, to be able to assess how effective a state has been in terms of the rollout of its health insurance scheme.”
While presenting the scorecard template, Mr. Olympus Ade-Banjo, Advocacy Consultant on the Joint Learning Agenda for Universal Health Coverage in Nigeria (JLA4UHC) project, Lagos chapter, commended LASHMA for impressive implementation but stressed that the agency could improve on some aspects of their operations.
Ade-Banjo said, “there is room for improvement in demand generation and also the policy landscape is currently not reflective of the current policy. We think there is a need for revision which has to be done promptly.”
He added that JLA will be supporting the agency with Demand Generation Materials (DGM) that can be used at the digital space to keep the public aware of the provisions in order to take up health insurance.
“Developed information materials that can be used at the grassroots level, also to support the work of the agency so that people can demand for more service,” he added.
Dr Emmanuella Zamba, the Permanent Secretary of LASHMA, said the Agency is committed to collaborating more with Civil Society Organizations on demand generation for mandatory health insurance drives within Lagos communities.
Zamba also explained that the Lagos State Government is reviewing the State’s Health Insurance Act to address existing gaps and ensure it captures the current realities which would help to ensure universal health coverage.
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