The federal government Monday reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening Nigeria’s health financing system to ensure universal health coverage for all citizens.

The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Ali Pate, made this known while speaking to journalists in Abuja, during the national health financing dialogue.

The theme of the dialogue was “Enhancing Advocacy and Accountability Mechanisms to Drive Healthcare Financing.”

Prof. Pate said 4 million Nigerians have enrolled in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in 18 months.

He added that health insurance is for every Nigerian, so that every employer will enroll their workers in the health insurance scheme.

“The aim of the dialogue is to share ideas, listen to civil society organisations and hear specifically from the members of the media,” he said.

The director-general of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr. Kelechi Ohiri, said the vision for Nigeria to achieve Universal Health Coverage was one of the critical agenda in the health sector renewal investment initiative.

He added that the NHIA has expanded coverage and also enforced the mandate with the government and made sure that all employees complied.

Dr Ohiri stated that there is need to increase awareness and a lot of collaboration to ensure that the media, civil society amplifiers say, “It is better to be insured than to pay out of pocket for care when you are sick. Every country that has achieved UHC, achieves it through health insurance,” he said.