President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Mohammed Sambo as the new Executive Secretary of National Health Insurance Scheme.
President Buhari on Monday sacked the embattled Executive Secretary of the Agency, Professor Usman Yusuf.
This is coming ten months after Mr. Yusuf was suspended from office by the governing council of the agency. The termination of Mr. Yusuf’s appointment was based on the recommendation of a panel of enquiry which had been set up to investigate some of his activities while in office.
The governing council is empowered by the NHIS Act to oversee operations of the scheme. Mr. Yusuf has been on administrative leave since October 2018.
This was disclosed in a press statement issued by the Director, Media, Federal Ministry of Health, Mrs Boade Akinola on Monday.
Since the suspension of Mr Yusuf, the agency has been headed by an acting ES, Sadiq Abubakar.
According to the statement, President Buhari authorised the termination of Mr Yusuf’s appointment “based on the recommendation of the panel”.
“Following the recommendations of report by an independent fact-finding panel on the NHIS, President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the termination of appointment of the Executive Secretary, Prof. Usman Yusuf, who has been on administrative leave and has approved the appointment of Prof. Mohammed Sambo as the new executive secretary,” the statement read in part.
“Similarly, the President also approved the dissolution of the governing board of the NHIS and directed the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health to exercise full powers of the council pending the constitution of a new board.
“President Buhari has also approved the appointment of Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu as Director–General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
“The appointment is in line with the provisions of Section 11(1)(3) of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control(Establishment) Act, 2018.”
