Kaduna: The Kaduna State Contributory Health Management Authority (KADCHMA) has reviewed its enrolment performance and unveiled a comprehensive 2026 expansion strategy aimed at accelerating progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC). The Director-General of KADCHMA, Malam Abubakar Hassan, highlighted the renewed focus on the informal sector during a 2-day Quarterly Review Meeting on the update of the Informal Sector Enrolment Campaign held in Zaria on Friday.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, the meeting was convened to assess the authority’s 2025 performance, interrogate enrolment data trends, and develop a realistic roadmap for expanding health insurance coverage in the state. Health insurance coverage in Kaduna State rose from 4.5 per cent in 2023 to 9.6 per cent in 2025, reflecting a ‘double-digit growth in enrolment’ within the period under review. Despite this growth, Hassan emphasized the need for faster and smarter scaling to achieve universal coverage.
The 2026 strategy will focus on credible and verifiable data, with an emphasis on moving from awareness to conversion, enrolment to retention, and targets to measurable impact. Hassan identified the informal sector as the ‘missing middle’ in health financing, comprising artisans, traders, farmers, transport workers, and other small-scale entrepreneurs. KADCHMA plans to deepen engagements with market associations, transport unions, agricultural groups, and community structures to drive enrolment and renewals.
Additionally, the authority will leverage traditional and religious institutions to strengthen advocacy and community mobilisation. The campaign will begin with advocacy to the Zazzau Emirate Council, which covers 11 local governments, 35 districts, and over 2,700 wards and village heads. The initiative will expand to other emirates and involve faith-based organisations to reduce out-of-pocket health spending.
Dr Mohammed-Bello Abdulkadir, Salanken Zazzau, and representative of the Zazzau Emirate Council, expressed support for the initiative, citing the role of traditional institutions in Nigeria’s successful fight against polio. He noted the effective channel provided by the Emirate structure to reach both formal and informal sector workers.
Alhaji Garba Mohammed, Chairman of the Kaduna State Maternal Accountability Mechanism Initiative, commended KADCHMA for the progress recorded in 2025. He urged the authority to sustain the gains by strengthening retention strategies and boosting enrolment within the informal sector. Mohammed also highlighted the irregularity of the state government’s three per cent counterpart funding for the scheme, stressing that addressing funding gaps would be a key advocacy priority in 2026.