An official said Thursday that the Katsina State Contributory Healthcare Management Agency had enrolled at least 293,008 people in the scheme.

Nasir Lawal, the director of Planning, Research and Statistics of the Agency, said this during the 2024 first-quarter Social Protection Technical Working Group meeting in Katsina.

The Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning organised the meeting with the support of United Nations Children’s Funds (UNICEF), Kano Field office.

The meeting aimed to review the progress made regarding social protection activities planned for 2024. Presenting the agency’s progress report, the director said that 170 accredited healthcare providers in the state enrolled the beneficiaries.

“It is worthy to note that a total of 274,397 beneficiaries accessed healthcare services at primary and secondary levels of care within the last 12 months.

“The Agency also conducted over 6,000 enrolee update ranging from change of healthcare provider, adding dependent, replacement of Identity Cards, among other things,” the director said.

According to Mr Lawal, those enrolled are in the formal sector, where employees have a structured salary.

“The programme is designed for all elected and political appointees of state and local government, Katsina State public sector employees, among others,” added the official.

He explained that organisations with at least five employees were also expected to register with the scheme.

“For Katsina state public servants, 2.5 per cent of their consolidated salary is being deducted as their contributions,” Mr Lawal noted. “For the organised private sector, the employer pays 10 per cent, while the employee pays five per cent, representing 15 per cent of the employee’s monthly basic salary collective, which shall not be less than N5000.”

He, however, said that the employer or employee may decide to pay the entire contribution for the year.

Mr Lawal added that student payment was per academic session at N2,000, subject to review by the agency.

Mr Lawal disclosed that the agency had distributed more than 2,868 enrollment forms to operatives of the newly established Community Watch Corps for their inclusion in the scheme. 

(NAN)