The Executive Secretary of the Kwara Health Insurance Agency, Dr Olubunmi Jetawo-Winter has disclosed that the agency under her headship has registered about 60,000 Kwara residents as beneficiaries of the scheme.
Dr Olubunmi said this in Ilorin on Thursday, said, while 21,000 of the enrolees were captured under the basic healthcare provision fund, 24,000 got boarded through formal and informal sectors categorization among others as stipulated in the guidelines of the agency.
Jetawo-Winter explained that the massive enrolment commenced from last year September when Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq launched access to health care for 10,000 indigenes.
The executive secretary said the numbers were distributed across the 16 local government areas of the state with a view to enabling the people have a sense of belonging.
She recalled that though the law establishing the agency was effective from 2017 but could not begin a full fledged operation due to lack of funding.
Jetawo-Winter stated that the present administration had encouraged the agency with requisite funding since it came on board, adding that the turnout for enrolment was quite commendable.
The executive secretary said her agency has started employing political structure of office holders at the state and federal levels to reach out to the people for additional enrolment and coverage.
“We have been able to mop up a lot of people both in the informal sector, the formal/private sector. Where we are going now is to board the public sector, the civil servants, which has been a challenge for us because of labour issue otherwise we would have onboarded them.
“We have gained a lot of traction. We are about just a year old. We have close to 60,000 people onboarded in the first year and the year is not over yet. We have about 21,000 under the basic healthcare provision fund. We have another 24,000 and plus all the other companies in the private sector, who have been boarding. We also have community participation. Like Igbaja community, they came and paid for so many people in their constituency to access care. We have also had Abdulmajeed Foundation in Offa.
“So, we have different communities that have approached us that we are in the process of onboarding their own constituencies as well. We are also going through the political structure, those at the National and State House of Assembly, trying to get them to onboard their constituencies”, she said.