TheCable

Mohammed Sambo, newly appointed executive secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), has urged “warring factions” in the agency to cease fire.

Sambo said this during his maiden interactive session with staff of the scheme at its headquarters in Abuja.

President Muhammadu Buhari had approved his appointment as the executive secretary of the agency after Usman Yusuf, the former NHIS boss, was sacked following recommendation of a panel set up to probe the crisis in the scheme.

The executive secretary said he will be systematic and purposeful in building bridges to reposition the agency to take its rightful place in the nation’s healthcare landscape.

The new NHIS boss also unveiled his 3-point rebranding agenda for the agency, which he said has been mainly packaged to resolve its image crisis and the consequent loss of public confidence.

He listed the 3-point agenda to include restoring value system that will transform NHIS into a credible result-driven organisation, engendering transparency and accountability in the entire operation of the scheme and accelerating the drive towards achieving access to quality healthcare for all Nigerians.

Sambo asked aggrieved officials in the organisation to “sheath his/her sword and observe perpetual seize-fire for the benefit of the teeming Nigerian who are looking up to the scheme for healthy and economically productive lives”.

“The detail elements of the rebranding agenda will soon be unveiled after undertaking rapid assessment of the situation in the Scheme. Thereafter, a series of activities to actualize this vision will follow,” he said.

“I know very well that the problems of NHIS are as old as NHIS itself.

“I am familiar with the terrain. I was part and parcel of its construction. I know the bends and the pot holes. I know all the essential landmarks and I am determined to navigate through.”

He lamented the crisis that had rocked the scheme, impairing its capacity to deliver creditably on its core mandate.

Sambo also assured the public that he was committed to take the scheme to the promised land.