The Kwara State Community Health Insurance Scheme (KWCHIS) on Thursday, 9 June won the 2016 Financial Times/IFC Transformational Business Award.
KWCHIS beat GSK UK, Etisalat UAE, Living Goods USA, and Sustainable Health USA to win the “Achievement in Sustainable Development: Maternal and Infant Health” category of the awards.
The award event, which was held at the Hilton Hotel, Bankside in London had in attendance the Director General of the Kwara State Hospital Management Board, Mrs. Bunmi Jetawo Winter and the Executive Secretary of KWCHIS, Alhaji Abdulrazaq Abdulsalam.
Kwara Health Insurance Programme was selected for the prestigious business award after a rigorous review of different programmes from across the world that have had transformational impact on people.
The Financial Times award is a remarkable testimony of the impact of the health scheme on the people of Kwara State as well as a motivation for the efforts of the state government towards finding a long-term financing solution for the programme.
Meanwhile, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed in a statement on Friday by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communications, Dr. Muyideen Akorede, said that he was pleased to hear that the Kwara State CHIS has again received international endorsement.
The governor noted that the recognition has added impetus to the state government’s efforts in expanding rural access to affordable healthcare delivery, stressing that his government will continue to prioritize the wellbeing of the people by initiating policies and programmes that will increase efficiency and effectiveness in the healthcare system of the State.
Governor Ahmed also thanked Kwara’s partners in the scheme, the Dutch Government, PharmAccess Foundation and Hygeia Community Health for supporting the scheme since it was launched. The scheme allows beneficiaries to have access to quality health care all year round, for a token of N500.
It will be recalled that the health insurance scheme in 2014 in Paris won a finalist prize at the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee awards for development initiative.
The scheme had also received commendation from the United Nations and Bill Gates Foundation for its creative approach to pro-poor health care.