Reps panel invites Adeosun, Emefiele over N10bn NHIS fund
The House of Representatives committee on healthcare services has invited the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele over N10 billion said to have been deducted from the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
The panel, headed by Chike Okafor (APC, Imo) said the amount was domiciled at the CBN but appeared to be deducted ‘arbitrarily’.
The Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, is to appear alongside Adeosun and Emefiele.
At a session in Abuja yesterday, the Executive Secretary of NHIS, Prof Usman Yusuf told lawmakers that the amount was deducted as the agency’s operating surpluses.
He said the transaction was done in two tranches, with N5bn deducted in each of the transactions in December last year and January this year.
The committee chairman, Okafor said the panel would get to the bottom of the matter to ascertain how and why the amount was deducted.
No missing N10bn in NHIS – Prof Yusuf
Prof. Yusuf described as “misleading and irresponsible” allegation that N10bn was missing from the account of the agency.
He said the N10bn in question was deducted from the NHIS Treasury Single Account, as unremitted revenue, by the Federal Ministry of Finance between December 2016 and January 2018. It was then paid into the Federal Government Consolidated Revenue Fund.
“In December 1, 2016, NHIS got a memo from the Federal Ministry of Finance stating that NHIS is a revenue generating agency. I went to the minister and the Accountant-General of the Federation and told them that NHIS is not a revenue generating agency.
“On 28 December, 2016, N5bn was deducted from the NHIS Account; another N5bn was deducted on 11 January, 2018, totalling N10bn. The money was deducted as surplus unremitted revenue from the agency. I don’t know whether it has been used or what it was used for,” he told the panel.
