National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Services and Consumer Perception: A Study of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS), Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the perception of consumers on National Health Insurance scheme (NHIS) services at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS) Nigeria. The Population of this study is 976 (Nine hundred and seventy-six) academic staff, out of which 278 (two hundred and seventy-eight) were sampled, using stratified random sampling techniques. Structured questionnaire was administered to the respondents. It was found that, 99.3% of the respondents were cognizant of the scheme, but unfortunately majority of the staff had bad perception of NHIS services, which led to low enrollment of the scheme within the university. However, it has been recommended that, the NHIS authorities in charge of service provision within the university, should (as a matter of urgency) improve the quality through the introduction of National Mobile Health Insurance Program (NMHIP) it's a novel concept, that provides mobile networks operators the platform to register, select HMO and provider and choose payment option and plans, all on their mobile phone, and at their convenience. NHIS service providers should also intensify positive awareness campaign of their services, which will allow the consumers to get a good perceptual image about the services of NHIS, hence more enrollees in to the scheme.