Kwara State Government has commended Sterling Bank Plc for the partnership to actualise the Kwara State Health Insurance Scheme (KSHIS).
The scheme, which was inaugurated three years ago, has become moribound.
The resuscitation of the scheme represents a direct response by the state government to ensure that Goal Three of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is achieved in the state by 2030, Kwara State Governor Abdulrahman AbduRauf stated this at the weekend during the relaunch of the programme in Ilorin, the state capital.
He said the scheme will start as a test-run with at least 10,000 indigent citizens drawn from the 16 local government areas
The governor noted that the health insurance scheme would boost life expectancy of the people, promote good health and ultimately strengthen the economy, saying the scheme has the potential to prevent a sudden fall into poverty among indigent people as a result of any unforeseen health crisis.
Executive Director of Institutional Banking, Sterling Bank, Mr. Emmanuel Emefienim, said the bank decided to partner with the Kwara State Government as part of its commitment to the development of the health sector, which is one of its focus areas.
According to Emefienim, the bank is focusing investments on five sectors of the economy, including Health, Education, Agriculture, Renewable Energy and Transportation (HEART), to make impact on the Nigerian economy.
He said: “Sterling Bank is working with Kwara State Government to pioneer a truly inclusive healthcare delivery model. There is no better time to do that than now.”
Emefienim explained that the state government approached Sterling Bank to support the administrative set-up cost for the development and acquisition of the scheme’s ICT software and hardware as well as registration and biometric data capture of all residents across 193 wards and the 16 local governments.
He said the bank’s support would enable the health insurance scheme to be efficient, structured and administered in a way that is devoid of bureaucratic bottlenecks.
Executive Secretary of the Kwara State Health Insurance Agency, Dr. Olubunmi Jetawo-Winter, lauded Sterling Bank for providing the financial support that enabled the agency to engage consultants, including Exaro Solutions and CarePay, to develop automated registration module that will be used to capture the needed health data of residents in the state for the purpose of enrolling them into the scheme.
