Health Personnel and the Implementation of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria

Acknowledged as a policy target for the government of Nigeria, healthcare provision represents an important preoccupation for the government. As with other public policies, the achievement of policy goals in Nigeria is usually encumbered by numerous factors of implementation across various sectors. In the health sector, factors such as inadequate physical infrastructure, shortage of healthcare personnel, limited medical supplies etc. have hindered the implementation of several health policies. National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is one of such policies and this study examined the effects of shortage of healthcare personnel on the implementation of NHIS policy in FCT, Abuja. Specifically, the study evaluated the opinions of health workers as well as enrollees of NHIS in four purposively chosen Area Councils of the six Area Councils in FCT. This study adopted a survey research design with Rensis Likert’s five-point scale questionnaire instrument administered to both categories of respondents. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Version 25) and the T-tested statistical tool was used to test the hypothesis. The study found out that shortage of health personnel is a major barrier to the effective implementation of NHIS in the FCT, Abuja. Consequently, the study recommends that there should be massive recruitment of qualified healthcare personnel; training and retraining of healthcare workers; and timely and adequate remuneration for the healthcare workers in FCT, Abuja.