The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu has called on insurance bodies to partner with the State government to ensure the successful implementation of the newly introduced Lagos State Health Insurance Scheme (LSHIS).
Governor Sanwoolu made the call Thursday at the 65th Birthday celebration of the first female President of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers, NCRIB, Mrs. Laide Osijo and the commissioning of the Plum House, Ebute-Metta, Lagos.
The Governor who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, while reiterating the importance of health insurance, urged the practitioners to partner with the State in the Scheme, to mitigate government having to expend over N2.5 billion in support of people with medical challenges.
Besides, he also urged religious leaders, traditional rulers and opinion leaders to assist government in the sensitization of health insurance.
“For instance, the fire incident that occurred in Lagos Island this week, though very unfortunate, but the truth is that between 80-90 percent of the traders doesn’t have insurance. We must therefore find a way to meet the exigencies of getting our people to embrace insurance to meet disasters.” He said.
Speaking on the ways by which insurance can affect infrastructure development in the State, the Governor said, “only two roads in the entire Africa were constructed through the Public-Private participation (PPP), that is only the Lekki-Epe Expressway and one other in South Africa, adding that virtually all sectors required insurance intervention.
Speaking further, Sanwo-Olu stressed the need for insurance practitioners to institutionalize the culture of insurance among the citizens by finding ways to relate and get people informed about the importance of insurance in their day-to-day activities.
Speaking on the standard of Education in Nigeria, the Governor said ‘”we are raising functional illiterates”.
However to address the challenges in the sector he said the state had raised significantly the budgetary allocation to education in the next year’s budget.
