TheCable

The federal executive council (FEC) has approved the inclusion of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members in the country’s National Health Insurance (NHIS) scheme.

Isaac Adewole, minister of health, disclosed this to state house correspondents after the weekly FEC meeting on Wednesday in Abuja.

He said the inclusion was aimed at preventing the sad incidents of deaths of corps members across the country.

Last year, two corps members last year died in their respective orientation camps.

They are Ifedolapo Oladepo, who died at the Kano state camp as well as Ukeme Asuquo who died at the Zamfara state camp.

The minister also said the inclusion was one of the memoranda presented to FEC by the health ministry.

“Council approved the memo that henceforth we will include NYSC members in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) across the country,” he said.

“This will guarantee access to quality care across the country, prevent unnecessary deaths and also ensure our youth corps members receive the highest attainable level of care across the country.”

The minister said the ministry also presented a memorandum to FEC on the renewal of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the federal ministry of health and the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA).

He said the MoU deals with the procurement and distribution of contraceptives commodities across the country.

According to him, “the federal government has the policy of free distribution of contraceptives commodities and services across the country”.

“We have renewed the MoU today to last for the next four years between 2017 and 2020. And that we will also continue to provide effective safe voluntary contraceptives services across,” he said.

Adewole added that the ministry also presented a report on the state of public health services across the country.

“We have formally declared the Meningitis outbreak over in the country,” he said.

“We also informed FEC that we have not recorded new cases of Polio in the country in 2017. We have recorded seven new cases of Lessa fever across the country and the cholera outbreak in Kwara state has also fizzled out.”