Key Points

• NHIA portal restoration follows PUNCH report on major outage.

• Health workers nationwide confirm full access restored.

• Agency pledges stronger cybersecurity and cloud systems.

The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has brought back its online enrolment portal after people complained and The PUNCH reported on the long shutdown that made it impossible for hospitals, agents, and citizens to register for insurance across the country.

Officials said that access to the platform was restored on Monday, which was a huge relief for thousands of health management organisations and individual enrollees who had been stuck there since early October.

After a national outcry, NHIA brings back the enrolment portal

Emmanuel Ononokpono, the NHIA’s spokesperson, said that the technical problems were caused by a failed data migration that was part of the agency’s ongoing digital overhaul.

“The downtime was not planned, but it was necessary to improve our infrastructure. He said in a statement from Abuja, “The system is now fully restored.”

Before the restoration, The PUNCH said that healthcare providers in Lagos, Kaduna, Rivers, and other states complained about patients who had trouble getting enrolled and had to wait longer for their validation.

Several health insurance agents told reporters that the outage made them process enrolments by hand, which caused a backlog that slowed down service delivery.

Hospitals say access has been restored and they want better IT systems

Dr. Amina Adekoya, an administrator at a hospital in Lagos, said that the NHIA portal was back online and called it a “major relief” after weeks of problems. “We depend on the platform a lot for real-time verification.” She said, “The downtime hurt claims, patient flow, and revenue.”

Health experts say that the event shows how weak Nigeria’s digital health infrastructure is and how important it is to have backup systems to keep national databases safe.

The National Health Insurance Authority Act 2022, which aims to give all Nigerians health insurance by 2030, has led the NHIA, headed by Director General Dr. Kelechi Ohiri, to digitise its operations.

Restoring the NHIA portal boosts public trust

After weeks of criticism from civil society and healthcare groups, the NHIA portal restoration is an important step towards regaining public trust.

Ononokpono told users that the agency had improved cloud storage space and made cybersecurity stronger to stop problems from happening again.

The NHIA also promised to set up an emergency response unit to deal with technical problems as they happen, making sure that hospitals and people all over the country can always get access.