Succour as 200 Women Entrepreneurs Enrol into NHIA GIFSHIP Programme

Abuja (ILO News): The ILO, in collaboration with NHIA, through ILO’s project “Promoting Gender Equality Through Women’s Entrepreneurship Development and Enterprise Formalization” in Nigeria, has successfully facilitated the enrolment of two hundred (200) Nigerian women entrepreneurs in the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) Group Individuals Family Social Health Insurance Program (GIFSHIP) to enable them to access health care services with ease.

The National Health Insurance Authority statutorily facilitates financial access to quality and affordable healthcare services for all Nigerians and legal residents through pre-payment mechanisms that would significantly reduce the financial barriers to access to healthcare services in line with the NHIA Act 2022. As part of the Authority’s strategy to achieve its mandate, her flagship programme, the Group Individual and Family Social Health Insurance Programme (GIFSHIP), launched in November 2020, serves as an efficient platform for health insurance coverage for persons in the informal and formal sector not covered under any of the NHIA programmes.

GIFSHIP is health insurance taken up and paid for by groups, individuals, and families not covered by other NHIA programmes. Its key attributes are social solidarity, all-inclusiveness and leaving no one behind.

Working in collaboration with Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), ILO social partners and other relevant stakeholders, the ILO empowered women through targeted financial support, business (skills) training, mentorship programmes and networking opportunities. It also supported SMEDAN to develop a comprehensive and implementable roadmap to drive women’s entrepreneurship development and enterprise formalization.

With the enrolment of two hundred women in Lagos and Rivers States, the project has highlighted the importance of formalizing businesses, which comes with more benefits than expected.

Acknowledging the ILO contribution that made the enrolment possible, the Director General of the NHIA, speaking through the Ag Director, Formal Sector Department, Pharm Makwe, C. N. said, “The Management of the National Health Insurance Authority applauds the grant by the ILO to support the enrolment of 200 women entrepreneurs into the GIFSHIP programme of the Authority under the name, NHIA-ILO Women Entrepreneurs Group”.

One of the beneficiaries of GIFSHIP programme in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, in her testimony, said “I am expressing my gratitude to ILO for sowing a seed in my life which enabled me to enroll in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). I was admitted to the Nigerian Naval Medical Centre on 15/05/2024; as we all know the nature of our country, without a membership card, you cannot see the doctor, but when I reached, I showed them my NHIS card, and the hospital card was given to me to see the doctor and they started treatment immediately. The test was free, and I paid 10% of all my drugs”. While thanking the ILO and NHIS for the health insurance scheme, she called on the ILO to accommodate more women in the insurance scheme.