The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, has said that four million Nigerians have joined the National Health Insurance Scheme in the last two years.
He made this known on Thursday during an interview on Channels Television’s *Sunrise Daily*. The minister explained that this progress was made under the current administration as part of efforts to improve access to affordable healthcare.
“In the last two years, we’ve seen the expansion of the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund, which supports poor and vulnerable groups,” he said.
He added, “Hundreds of thousands of poor women and children have been covered through that to receive primary healthcare services.”
Pate said that the Federal Ministry of Health is working closely with state health insurance agencies to reform and improve the scheme.
“We are reforming the National Health Insurance Scheme, working with state health insurance authorities. We’ve been able to expand enrollment in health insurance across our country,” he said.
He pointed out that before the current government took office, only 16 million Nigerians had registered for health insurance, even though the scheme has existed for almost 25 years.
“For almost 25 years of health insurance in Nigeria, there were 16 million enrollees when this administration came in — literally, less than a million a year,” Pate said.
“But in two years, four million Nigerians have enrolled in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). If we had been doing this in the past, Nigeria would have had more than 100 million enrollees.”
He said the government hopes to continue expanding health insurance so more Nigerians, especially those in poor and rural areas, can get the healthcare they need.
Pate recently made the 2025 TIME’s list of 100 Global Health Influencers, alongside Dr. Fehintola Bako-Aiyegbusi.
