NHIS: How N13.7bn Was Paid Out In 10 Days

A snippet of the quantum of institutional rot in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in recent years has been uncovered by LEADERSHIP Friday.

According to a document sighted by the paper, in just one day in 2013, the sum of N13.7 billion was deposited in a bank with the sole aim of generating a higher return for those involved to the detriment of the organisation.

This is as the current executive secretary and chief executive officer (ES/CEO), Prof Yusuf Usman, continues to come under persistent media and labour union attacks for the steps he has been taking since he assumed office six months ago to unearth many of the scams allegedly perpetrated by some of his predecessors and their cronies.

Prof. Usman, who spoke exclusively to LEADERSHIP Friday, lamented the level of sleaze he discovered since taking over last year, saying, “I know I am not fighting unions but a war by proxy.’’

In the document seen by this paper, 13 banks were accomplices in a mega-billion naira financial irregularity that rocked the NHIS between 2013 and 2015, thus affecting the legal operation of the organisation, which is primarily to provide health to teeming Nigerians at a subsidised rate.

It was gathered that within those ten days the questionable deposits were made, the prevailing interest rate accruable as a result continued to nose-dive daily.

LEADERSHIP Friday also uncovered another fraud in a land purchase deal; the going prize was N300 million, but it was purchased for N1billion.

“What I found in NHIS is pathetic. I met endemic corruption, inefficiency, political patronage and impunity. We have not been good custodians of that which we were entrusted with, which is people’s common wealth.

Leadership, February 3, 2017

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