Nigeria’s health insurance has covered 23.06 million people, a 42.35 per cent increase from 16.20 million recorded in late 2023, the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has said.
The Director-General of NHIA, Dr Kelechi Ohiri, disclosed this at the 11th edition of the Future of Health Conference 2026, organised by Nigeria Health Watch in Abuja on Thursday.
Ohiri said that expanding health insurance coverage must translate into access to quality healthcare, availability of essential medicines and protection against excessive out-of-pocket expenditure.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the conference had the theme, “From Innovation to Impact: The Future of Health is Now”.
It brought together policymakers, health professionals, innovators, development partners and other stakeholders to examine ways to translate healthcare innovations into measurable outcomes.
On health financing, Ohiri said the NHIA had introduced digital tools to help enrollees to understand their benefits and exercise their rights.
“These include the MyNHIA mobile application, an online self-enrolment portal and quick response codes providing information on covered consultations, diagnostic services and medicines.
“The authority reported receiving and tracking 2,209 complaints from enrollees, healthcare facilities and health maintenance organisations, with 82 per cent resolved within 48 hours,” he said.
He said refunds were secured for some enrollees who were improperly charged by healthcare facilities, while formal warnings and delisting were used to address persistent provider non-compliance.
He said that enrolment under the Basic Health Care Provision Fund gateway rose from 2.64 million in the second quarter of 2026 to 3.18 million in the third quarter.
He added that all 3,182,943 enrollees under the gateway had been biometrically verified using their National Identification Numbers to strengthen accountability.
“The authority also reported that its maternal and newborn health programmes had reached 96,068 beneficiaries as of October 2026.
“The interventions include emergency care for high-risk pregnancies, treatment for women living with obstetric fistula and services for small and sick newborns,” Ohiri said.
According to him, the agency’s maternal emergency care programme had treated 80,906 women across 263 accredited facilities, while the Fistula Free Programme had reached 6,059 women across 19 specialised facilities.
“The neonatal emergency care programme had also reached more than 9,103 newborns,” he said.
He said that enrolment under NHIA’s Global Fund-supported health insurance initiative for key populations in Gombe, Anambra, Ebonyi and Kwara states increased from 25,815 in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 58,447 in the third quarter of 2026.
To improve healthcare quality, Ohiri said NHIA was transitioning from static provider accreditation to an empanelment model assessing facilities based on clinical quality, financial sustainability, data integrity and governance.
Ohiri also highlighted Nigeria’s National Health Technology Assessment Roadmap, Framework and Process Guidelines developed to support evidence-based decisions on healthcare benefits, treatment options and resource allocation.
He said its reforms aligned with the Federal Government’s Strategic Health Sector Blueprint introduced in 2023 to improve health outcomes, reduce financial hardship and expand access to essential healthcare services.
He said the ultimate test of health financing reforms would be whether Nigerians could obtain timely and quality healthcare without being pushed into financial hardship.
The Managing Director of Nigeria Health Watch, Mrs Vivianne Ihekweazu, said the conference had, over the past decade, provided a platform for addressing major issues shaping Nigeria’s health sector.
Ihekweazu recalled that the first edition, held in 2015, focused on Universal Health Coverage, professional collaboration, political accountability, technology, primary healthcare and quality of care.
She said the conference had consistently highlighted broader health system challenges, including those in financing, private-sector participation, data reliability, workforce migration and climate change on health.
According to her, the sector must move beyond discussions about potential innovations to addressing the financing, policy, procurement and data systems needed to scale effective solutions.
She cited a review of digital innovations in maternal and newborn health in Nigeria, which found that none of the 10 interventions assessed had achieved a sustained scale.
She said the challenge was not necessarily that the interventions had failed, but that many lacked institutional ownership and clear pathways into routine healthcare delivery.
Ihekweazu urged stakeholders to prioritise sustainability and wider implementation from the outset, rather than allow promising innovations to remain isolated pilot projects.
She said the conference would showcase innovations in artificial intelligence-enabled self-care, solar-powered cancer treatment, disease surveillance using molecular and genomic data, and interventions to reduce maternal and child deaths.
She said the conference had helped to bring issues such as private-sector participation, diaspora engagement, digital health and climate-related health risks into broader national discussions.
She urged participants to leave the conference with actionable steps to strengthen healthcare delivery, rather than recommendations and commitments alone.
