Mrs. Adesimbo Ukiri, Managing Director/CEO of Avon Healthcare Limited, one of Nigeria’s leading Health Management Organizations (HMOs), has identified innovation as a key factor that will aid the deepening of health insurance penetration in Nigeria.
Speaking during this year’s edition of the BusinessDay CEO Forum, held recently at the Eko Hotels and Suites, in Lagos, Ukiri said that if HMOs could focus on innovation, particularly in the area of product development, the Nigerian market would find health insurance much more attractive.
She said: “Innovation should play a leading and pivotal role in the evolution of ealthHeaHealth Insurance and the drive to achieve universal health coverage in Nigeria. With a population of about 170 million people, the ability to innovate and come up with different products to meet the needs and affordability requirements of the wide and diverse market segments that exist in the country is crucial. At the moment, a comparison of the Health plans offered by most HMOs will reveal a similar set of four plans. They may be called different names but the 4 plans are essentially the same at their core.” There needs to be a concerted effort industry wide, from all HMOs, to move away from this trend if we are to progress beyond the current 4% Health Insurance market penetration statistics that is often quoted for the country.
Ukiri also called for innovation in the area of channel development which in her view is a requirement for offering health insurance products to previously unserved market segments. This, she said, would open up new opportunities for the entire industry. She observed the fact that the informal private sector had largely been ignored by Health Insurance companies till date and the focus of most HMOs had been on a maturing and over served corporate market segment.
“Again, we find that there is room for innovation in the use of marketing channels and the way HMO products are being offered to the market. There are a limited number of people who can be reached when industry players rely heavily on their sales staff. This has meant there is a large proportion of the informal private sector segment who would like to avail themselves of Health Insurance services but have been unable to do so” she added.
Ukiri reiterated that Avon HMO will continue to play a key role in innovating to make Healthcare accessible and available to all Nigerians. “At Avon HMO, we are talking to our peers about the need to collaborate in order to innovate. The Nigerian market is one of great scale, the industry must work together to create the structures needed to achieve rapid market penetration. This will lead to extended reach, expanded market size, more efficiently priced cost of care, wider benefit coverage on plans and ultimately, lower premiums per head,” she stated.
