By Haruna Aliyu

The executive secretary  of Kebbi state contributory healthcare management agency (KECHEMA) Dr Ja, afar Muhammad Augie has said that so far at least 34,000 people have enrolled in state.

 Speaking on Friday in his office in Birnin kebbi disclosed that, the contributory agency was iniated by the state governor Senator Atiku Bagudu three years after the federal government decentralized social healthcare to enable the people of kebbi state to access healthcare with ease.

According to him the scheme was established under kebbi state law 2 and so far 43 primary healthcare facilities are participating in the scheme who are attending to at least 33,938 enrollees across the state.

Jafar added that another 3000 persons from the informal sector have been captured in the scheme who  will pay an agreed premium to the agency ” we have categorised it into three namely the formal sector which include civil servants and retirees, we have in the informal sector what we named vital contributors and the vulnerable group which include orphans, widows, physically challenged persons whose premium will  be sourced from the equity funds in kebbi state gathered through consolidated revenue funds (CRF).

He further said that, for the scheme to fully take up and function effectively they need the full participation of the formal sector which is the state government as it will trigger the complete participation of the informal sector and bring about checks and balances and will as well build the confidence of the informal sector.

However,to further solidify the scheme to meet the targeted desired objective another  34,000 were enrolled by KECHEMA under the federal government BHCPF programm in Kebbi state Augie has added.

The KECHEMA boss pointed out that a wide range of advocacies were carried out in the state through the media which include visits to the four royal houses namely Gwandu,Argungu,Yauri and Zuru who all blessed and lauded the establishment of the scheme in the state.

He mentioned lack of awareness of the scheme as of the reasons for the slow pace of the programm “already the organised labour in kebbi state have agreed to commit 3% of basic salaries of the state civil servants as premium to the social healthcare scheme, so we are optistimic that very soon the state government will give its nod on it he said”.

Jafar  who urged members of the public to key into it in order to access basic healthcare stated that interested groups can come directly to the scheme or through traditional rulers or associations, he thanked governor Bagudu for establishing the contributory scheme.