Osun Health Insurance Agency has commenced a four-day induction and capacity building retreat for newly inaugurated board members and management staff of the agency.
The retreat, which is taking place at Royal Park Hotel, Iloko- Ijesha, Oriade local government area of the Osun state, commenced on Monday with a brief opening ceremony.
The Commissioner of Health, Barr. Jola Akintola, who was present at the opening ceremony, advised the members of the board to relate with the career officers and learn the value of team work as “this is the only way to move forward and overcome any challenge”.
Akintola said “After the training, we will get the results, as we train them to face the challenges of the office they were appointed to do and we expect them to cooperate with the management and the administrative staff for maximum efficiency and delivery.”
The Executive Secretary of OSHIA, Dr Abdulrasaq Akindele while calling on attendees to pay maximum attention, said the workshop is important to improve on the successes recorded by the agency so far.
Akindele spoke on the progress the agency and the scheme under his leadership have made in the last few months.
He said “It is our job to make people know the importance of health insurance and the commission has done good so far. We realize we have over five million people in Osun state who do not have health insurance which means they have to pay out of their pocket for health bills. So we started mass advertisement and more awareness for people to know the value of health insurance scheme which was a good strategy because presently in just six months we have enrolled 9000 informal sectors and with this numbers we will beat our aim of 3 million people and the sky will be our limit.”
Speaking on the next line of action, the OSHIA boss said, “Our next strategy is to advocate through pilgrims and make it compulsory for anyone traveling for any pilgrimage to have health insurance.”
Akindele said the agency has digitalized all its processes and activities to bring about seamless operations and efficiency.
He said, “an enrollee can even do everything at their own comfort by downloading the app which is user friendly and makes the process much easier.”
Dr Micheal Oyerinde the Special Adviser to Governor Ademola Adeleke on Primary Healthcare commended the leadership of OSHIA and also the government in Osun state as the health system of Osun is actualizing its goals.
He also urged the board members and management staff present to take judicious use of the knowledge gained at the workshop by bringing it to bear in their daily activities.
He said “ I want to urge the board members and the management staff to let’s challenge ourselves to strengthen the impact of this commission at all levels so as to enhance the credibility of the agency. Let us make our health system in osun state a benchmark for other states to emulate. With this seminar, we can do that.”
The opening ceremony ended with the board members and management staff OSHIA fully prepared to learn and unlearn strategies, tactics and how to tackle challenges for the betterment and improvement of the agency.
