By Haruna Gimba
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has urged the federal government not to divert the Nigeria National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) funds to build healthcare centres in the country.
NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, stated this when the Executive Secretary of the NHIS, Proffessor Usman Yusuf, paid him a visit recently at Labour House, Abuja.
Mr. Wabba said that the congress had written on several occasions against the use of the fund to build primary healthcare centres.
“We are still on our position that those funds should be used strictly as applied in line with the provision of the mandate of the law establishing the National Health Insurance Scheme,” Wabba said.
He argued that any attempt to divert the fund which is not a revenue was wrong as it was a fund contributed from the earnings of workers to be able to provide health service.
He also appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari not to approve the channeling of the scheme fund to the TSAs, saying it was a specialized fund that was meant to provide health care service to workers in terms of needs which should not be subjected to prolonged administrative process.
In his remark, NHIS boss, Professor Yusuf said that presently the contribution that the agency had was from federal government workers which does not cover all Nigerians.
He assured that he would work with the state governors, unions, community leaders, among others, to ensure that all Nigerians including the vulnerable were included in the scheme.
