Kwara State government has concluded plans to partner National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in ensuring that the award-winning project, the Community Health Insurance Scheme hits one million enrolment by the year 2019.

Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed who gave this indication when the leadership of the scheme paid him a courtesy visit at the Government House, Ilorin, said the state was ready to team up with NHIS in driving universal health coverage through health insurance as a model for the country.

He added that the funding window proposed for the state run community health insurance scheme was a welcome development as the state was exploring new ways of funding the scheme in order to meet the desired coverage.

The governor, who noted that the population of the state tilts towards the youths, a potential huge work force, said the state requires qualitative healthcare delivery for them to be productive.

 “We must come up with a strong platform that will take advantage of the current age bracket," he said.

Ahmed identified poor data as hindrance to planning in all sectors, particularly in qualitative healthcare delivery, stressing that the nation must evolve pragmatic planning and data collection strategies for the realization of impact in the health sector in the country.

The NHIS's acting Executive Secretary, Mr Femi Akingbade said the fact that the state had a structured scheme on ground makes it expedient for the  NHIS to flag off its primary school health insurance pilot scheme in the state.

He said NHIS was also willing to partner with the Kwara State government in ensuring that the community health insurance scheme enjoys sustainable flow of funding especially as the present funding partners would not fund the scheme in perpetuity.