NHIA's Dr Kelechi Ohiri Promotes Health Insurance Reforms

The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), under the leadership of Director-General Dr Kelechi Ohiri, is focusing on evidence-driven reforms to expand health insurance coverage and improve financial protection for Nigerians. Ohiri made this announcement on Monday in Abuja at the inaugural Nigeria Health Finance Research and Learning Forum, themed “Evidence and Learning for Nigeria’s Health Financing Future: Building a Locally Led Research and Learning Ecosystem.” He emphasized the need for Nigeria to rely on locally generated research rather than episodic studies from outside the country, stating that such studies do not provide a sustainable policy foundation.

The NHIA aims to define its own research questions and embed learning into implementation, while still valuing international partnerships that support domestic priorities. The two-day forum will review five NHIA-commissioned studies and draw lessons from health financing experiences in Ethiopia, Ghana, and India.

Key areas of focus for the NHIA include mandatory health insurance coverage, equity, quality of care, and sustainability.