ABUJA (OAGF Report) – The Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris, has advised the Management of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), to enroll their staff members into the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), as it is the only platform to payroll Federal Government employees.
He stated this when the Management of NHIS, led by the Executive Secretary, Prof. Mohammed Nasir Sambo, paid an advocacy visit to the Treasury House in Abuja recently.
Ahmed congratulated the Executive Secretary on his well-deserved appointment and wished him a successful tenure free of rancour and labour unrest.
According to him, the NHIS is a public institution and must be subject to rules of engagement as far as public institution is concerned, saying they are expected to key into all financial policies, and if they intend to operate outside the rules, they should seek approval.
He further informed them that the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) is the driver of several public finance initiatives for the government such as the Treasury Single Account (TSA), Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), and Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
The AGF continued, that, the OAGF equally services the economy in terms of making releases to the three tiers of government; pays local debts to contractors and other oversight duties to MDA’s, including NHIS and every other aspect that revolves around resources.
The Executive Secretary of NHIS, Prof. Mohammed Nasir Sambo, who spoke earlier, said that in every developmental agenda, global health is important and NHIS is one of the most important versatile agencies providing support to the people in terms of health care, hence, it is the organ given the responsibility, to handle health care in Nigeria.
He continued that, the Federal Government took a drastic decision to establish a presidential fact-finding team to improve the health sector, as well as a white paper, that involved the Ministry of Health and Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, to look into details of the financial situation of NHIS.
He said that one of the aims of NHIS is to achieve universal health coverage and also to ensure that the vote of NHIS is viable to capture the most vulnerable in the society, stating that the government will not be able to finance the health institution of the masses alone.
Also, he solicited the assistance of the AGF to help look into the financial system of the NHIS for the smooth running of the scheme and the realization of their mandate.
Henshaw Ogubike
Deputy Director Press & Public Relation
