Over 23,000 fake enrollees uncovered in health insurance scheme

No fewer than 23,000 fake enrollees have been uncovered in the National Health Insurance Scheme.
This was disclosed on Tuesday by Prof. Usman Yusuf, the Executive Secretary, NHIS.
Usman said the employment of information technology into the scheme had helped purge the system of ghost enrollees.
According to him, over 23,000 fake enrollees with different Health Maintenance Organisations were discovered using IT.
He said this at a ceremony where Galaxy Backbone, a government Information Technology organisation, received the certification of ISO/IEC 20000 for its commitment to ensure information security and service delivery within government institutions in the country.
ISO/IEC 20000 is an international standard given to organisations that have demonstrated excellence, proved best practices in IT Service Management and achieved evidence based standard for IT delivery.
Usman congratulated Galaxy Backbone for its efforts in helping to clear the government system of corrupt public servants.
The certification was presented to Galaxy Backbone by the British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, Harriet Thompson.
Yusuf Kazaure, the Managing Director of Galaxy Backbone, said the yearnings of Ministries, Departments and Agencies informed the change in its service delivery that resulted to the company’s achievement.
According to Kazaure, the sole dependence of the country’s economy on oil also engendered more proactive measures to unburden the sector.
Kazaure said: “Galaxy Backbone had in the past met its customers’ needs but more needed to be done and it was imminent we had to review our business module.
“Another thing is the economic reality; the price of oil dramatically dropped, government funds were not able to support infrastructure and that puts pressure on our consumers which are the government agencies.
“In the light of that, we met at the management team and came up with a new vision for galaxy in 2015 which we called Galaxy 2.0 Strategy.
“That was to improve long term financial sustainability by striking the right balance between controlling business of today and pursuing goals in our business of tomorrow.
“We also wanted to become an indigenous industry to solve government’s problem in ICT, be indispensible to our customers for the right reasons and entrench the culture of innovation.
“But to obtain optimum customers’ satisfaction made the company aim for the ISO/IEC 20000 standard, which is the international information security standard.”
The MD, however, said that it took the organisation six years to evaluate the strategy, adding that it was among the first organisations to attain the standard in the country.
Kazaure said the process included training of every staff of the organisation to have IT foundation, while some others were placed on professional examinations.
Kazaure added that the organisation had redesigned all its processes to ensure that the necessary technology problems were handled properly to satisfy their consumers.
He said that the company in the previous year engaged the process of customer satisfaction index on the ISO/IEC 20000 standard to ensure it had value on targeted consumers.
The British Deputy High Commissioner said the commission had in the past supported ICT companies, which included the Galaxy Backbone.
Thompson said the company had showcased a level of competence to handle IT related issues in the government sphere.
Thompson said: “The company as a pace setter and government organisation has proved that it has the ability to attain international standard in IT.
“The certification will help ensure best practices, confidentiality, efficiency, integrity in its operations.”
Thompson, however, congratulated the company for its commitment to improve IT in the country.
Dr. Isa Ibrahim, the Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency, said collaboration among government IT agencies would ensure the country “is digitally driven”.
Ibrahim said: “We are willing to work with Galaxy Backbone because no one can do it alone; our main focus is to deliver our mandate.
“Together, we will support IT sector and at the same time work together to see that Nigeria is an IT, digital driven nation.”
The Security Exchange Commission, Nigerian Communication Satellite Limited and the Ministry of Budget and Planning, were among the organisations that commended the company on its achievement.
NAN reports that Galaxy Backbone’s implementation of Service Management System involved development of its human capacity and capabilities to transform its resources to valuable services.
ISO/IEC 20000 IT Service Management certificate is recognised worldwide.
It helps to provide assurance to Galaxy’s stakeholders about its ability to efficiently and effectively deliver IT services in an internationally acceptable manner.
NAN.