- In his motion, Dawodu pointed out that the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has not sufficiently covered vulnerable Nigerians, with only 5 million enrolled in the scheme
The House of Representatives has called upon President Bola Tinubu to allocate the funds saved from fuel subsidy removal towards enrolling Nigerians in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
This resolution was prompted by a motion put forth by Bashiru Dawodu, a legislator from Lagos State.
In his motion, Dawodu pointed out that the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has not sufficiently covered vulnerable Nigerians, with only 5 million enrolled in the scheme.
He suggested that the government could utilize the savings from subsidy removal, which amounts to N50 billion, to enroll an additional 5 million Nigerians into the scheme.
It would be recalled that President Tinubu had on May 29 removed fuel subsidy and promised to allocate the savings into healthcare, education, infrastructure and other investments.
The lawmaker said the savings from the subsidy removal would help in registering vulnerable Nigerians into the scheme.
“In 2022, NNPC spent N4 Trillion ($9.7B) on fuel subsidy and N3.6 Trillion in 6 months of 2023.
“It costs about N5 Billion to cover 5 Million persons annually at the rate of NI 5,000 per person,” he said.
The motion was taken without debate and ordered the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to ensure implementation and monitoring.