Sound health, being a necessity in the life of every productive citizen, has spurred the Federal Government into the creation of Community Based Social Health Insurance Programme.

Dr. M. B. W. Dogo-Muhammed, Executive Secretary, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) while speaking at the July 2009 Breakfast Forum of Nigerian-South African Chamber of Commerce has said that the essence of initiating the laudable programme is to pull contributions and cross-subsidize risks, significantly to reduce high cost of expenditure on health, remove both physical and financial barriers that hinder access to healthcare services and inject fresh funds into health system.

He added that the scheme was designed to achieve universal coverage and access to healthcare services for all Nigerians by 2015.

According to him, the formal sector which represents 25 percent of the population had organised setting of social health scheme ranging from Public Sector Social Health Insurance Programme for the Public Civil Servants and other health insurance programmes.

Dogo said that, basically because of the informal sector which represented 75 percent of the population, the Community Based Social Health Insurance (CBSHIP) was initiated to oversee the affairs of the rural communities, self-employed, occupation based groups and co-operatives, who had limited access to health care services because of poverty and low literacy level.

The programme is faced with a lot of challenges ranging from incentives, operating environment, nature of the scheme, mobilisation and sensitization and administrative difficulties.

The  Executive Secretary said that sustainable Community Based Social Health Insurance Programme (CBSHIP) was achievable if the Health Management Organisations (HMOs) recognised the existing community structures and allowed for  significant community ownership and active  participation in both planning and implementation.

Also at the forum, Dr. Ebun Sonaiya, Joint Medical Director, Total Health Trust Limited (THT) said that it was his company’s vision to be a global health business, providing technology solutions in the growing health markets in the Sub -Saharan Africa.

In his response, Tom Bassett, Vice Chairman, Nigerian-South African Chamber of Commerce thanked the National Health Insurance Scheme’s Executive Secretary for his well researched presentation and urged a broader adoption of the prescribed scheme in other to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in the health sector