Kelechi Ohiri, director-general of NHIA, is one of the country’s foremost health reformers, writes BASHIR IBRAHIM HASSAN
Economic reforms dominate Nigeria’s public discourse. Inflation, taxation, exchange rates and fiscal deficits command headlines almost daily. Yet beneath these familiar debates lies a quieter question with far greater implications for the country’s long-term prosperity: who will build the Nigeria those reforms are meant to serve?
For Kelechi Ohiri, director-general of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), the answer begins with people. “We don’t make enough reference to Nigeria’s greatest resource, which is human capital,” he observed during a fireside conversation at the BusinessDay CEO Forum. It was a simple statement, delivered without rhetorical flourish, yet it captured a philosophy that has defined his career across medicine, global development and public policy.
Unlike many healthcare leaders who see hospitals, insurance schemes and disease control as ends in themselves, Ohiri views healthcare as economic infrastructure. Healthy populations are more productive. Productive citizens build stronger businesses. Stronger businesses create wealth. Universal health coverage, in his worldview, is not merely a social obligation. It is a national competitiveness strategy.
