23,000 Ghost Enrollees Removed From NHIS

Prof. Usman Yusuf, Executive Secretary of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS)

About 23,000 ghost enrollees have been removed from the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, the scheme said on Tuesday.

Media report continues:

The removal of the enrollees, who have been enjoying the benefits of the insurance scheme, created disagreement between the NHIS and other health management organizations.

The Executive Secretary, NHIS, Usman Yusuf, made this known in Abuja at the award of ISO/IEC 20000 standard certification to Galaxy Backbone Plc.

The NHIS boss said he worked in collaboration with three other government agencies to remove ghost enrollees who had been enjoying the benefits of the insurance scheme illegally.

He listed the agencies as Galaxy Backbone Plc, Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited and the National Identity Management Commission.

Mr. Yusuf, however, said the exercise has brought a friction between the NHIS and Health Management Organizations in the country.

The NHIS boss said, “I have a crack ICT team and the members have worked with Galaxy Backbone, the NIMC and NigComSat to remove the ghost enrollees.

“For this, the HMOs are fighting me, but we have to make sure that the right people get the money.”

On his part, the Deputy British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Harriet Thompson, said Information Technology had a critical role to play in the delivery of government services to the citizens.

In his contribution, the Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Solomon Dalung, urged ICT professionals to deploy the use of technology to tackle poverty and youth unemployment.

He noted that youth unemployment, if not addressed, was a time bomb waiting to explode.

Mr. Dalung also challenged ICT experts to come up with innovations that would take Nigeria out of recession.

The ISO 20000, an international standard, helps organizations to demonstrate excellence and best practices in IT service management.

The standard ensures that companies can achieve evidence-based benchmarks to continuously improve their delivery of IT services, towards the growth of the society.