The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with the Benue State Health Insurance Agency (BNSHIA) is set to provide free healthcare services to an additional 700 persons in 15 IDP camps across the state. The Executive Secretary of BNSHIA, Prof. Kenneth Korve, disclosed this on Monday at the agency’s headquarters in Makurdi while briefing field workers selected to carry out a five-day validation exercise.
The validation exercise aims to ascertain the actual number of IDPs who would benefit from the UNICEF support. Prof. Korve explained that last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) supported the agency to enroll 11,691 persons in all the camps. Through the collaboration with WHO, the agency paid for healthcare services for 5,418 persons. This year, UNICEF has offered to support the agency by providing free healthcare services to more people out of the remaining 6,373 who were not beneficiaries of the WHO aid.
“UNICEF has decided to support only 700 persons for now, and we registered these people in 2024, which is over a year now. It is possible that many things could have happened within this interval; some may have gone back to their ancestral homes. That’s why it has become necessary for us to validate the register itself and see how many people are still remaining in the camps so that out of this number, we can identify 700 of them that UNICEF will be paying on their behalf,” he explained.
The Benue State Coordinator of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Mr. Yakubu Oklobia, who monitored the exercise in some camps, commended UNICEF for partnering with BNSHIA to ensure that the vulnerable population receives adequate healthcare support. Oklobia pointed out that the gesture would help actualize the goal of NHIA, which is to cater to the healthcare needs of Nigerians. He expressed satisfaction with the validation exercise by BNSHIA.
“We went round and discovered that the vulnerable in various camps were very much in need of healthcare, and the number that UNICEF has chosen is a good one, even though we still have more numbers. We are deeply appreciative of UNICEF for the number it has volunteered to support for now,” he said.
Some field workers who shared their experiences with The Voice at the end of the exercise on Friday said the exercise was largely successful with minor hitches. One of the team leaders, Mr. Nicodemus Abiji, who led the team that conducted the exercise in Oshigbudu camp in Agatu Local Government Area and Naka and Agagbe IDP camps in Gwer West Local Government Area, said many persons who were earlier captured were not found at the time of the exercise due to farming activities.
“The turnout was very low because, like in the Oshigbudu camp in Agatu Local Government where we earlier captured 82 persons, none of them was found on the ground for validation. In Naka camp in Gwer West, we earlier captured 244 persons, and what we validated was 45. Then in Agagbe camp, we succeeded in validating only 221 out of the 1,436 that was initially captured,” he recounted.
Low turnout of IDPs for the validation exercise seemed to characterize most of the camps visited. However, the experience was different in Anyiin and Ugba camps in Logo Local Government Area, where a high number of IDPs came out for the exercise.
Some IDPs in Agagbe camp, including the kindred head of Mbabija, Chief Christopher Ter Chia, and the camp Chairman, Mr. Simon Ayoosu, lauded the intervention of BNSHIA and UNICEF for the displaced persons. They called on other non-governmental organizations and philanthropists to lend their support to the IDPs, who struggle with basic needs such as food, shelter, water, and light.
