Social health insurance: GIFSHIP targets Nigeria’s uninsured millions

Ewenla explained that while health insurance for federal workers has grown to become one of the country’s most widely utilised benefit packages across nearly 10,000 NHIA-accredited healthcare facilities, the vast majority of Nigerians remain outside the formal sector and require a structured pathway to affordable healthcare.

By Sola Ogundipe Nigeria’s drive towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) received a boost with the official introduction of the Group, Individual and Family Social Health Insurance Product (GIFSHIP), a scheme designed to extend affordable healthcare to millions of Nigerians in the informal sector and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

According to him, demand for health insurance coverage outside the public sector began shortly after the federal civil servants’ programme took off, prompting calls for similar protection for traders, artisans, transport workers, market associations and other informal sector operators which informed the development and “unpacking of the federal civil servants’ benefit package into GIFSHIP, making it suitable for groups, individuals and families.