Nigeria’s Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, has called for deeper reforms and stronger commitment to enhancing healthcare delivery across the Armed Forces of Nigeria. Matawalle, represented by his Special Assistant, Abdulkadir Atiku, made the call on Tuesday in Abuja at the 13th Defence Health Maintenance Limited (DHML) Stakeholders’ Meeting themed “Overcoming the Challenges of Healthcare Delivery in the Armed Forces of Nigeria: DHML and Military Healthcare Providers in Focus.”
Describing DHML as a “strategic pillar of military readiness and national resilience,” the minister said the meeting offered an opportunity for stakeholders to reflect, re-strategise and reinforce their shared commitment to sustainable, high-quality healthcare for personnel and their families.
He noted that DHML was established with the clear mandate to ensure free, comprehensive and quality healthcare through regular funding disbursements, adding that its vision to become a benchmark for health maintenance organisations in Nigeria remains both ambitious and inspiring. According to him, the agency’s mission emphasises efficiency, accountability, transparency, service delivery and patient satisfaction.
Matawalle stressed the need for the defence health system to remain aligned with the objectives of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), which seeks to protect families from catastrophic health spending and ensure equitable, quality healthcare through regulated systems. He said DHML had adapted these national objectives to suit the unique healthcare needs of military personnel.
He therefore urged healthcare providers and military health commanders to deepen collaboration, strengthen healthcare financing and advance service delivery across the Armed Forces.
Meanwhile, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Olufemi Oluyede, represented by M.B. Onwere, expressed concern that despite improvements recorded by DHML, persistent gaps remained in the military healthcare system. He noted that several chronic ailments and specialised consultations expected to be covered under the NHIA framework were still inadequately addressed.
“The Armed Forces is still concerned because some services that should be taken care of are not being handled as expected,” he said, urging stakeholders to use the meeting as a turning point to expand coverage and ensure compliance with national health insurance provisions so that “these issues can be changed to ensure full coverage”.
Earlier, the Managing Director/CEO of DHML, Azeez Afolayan, said the meeting was designed to foster frank and constructive engagement to improve healthcare for serving and retired personnel and their dependants. He described the military health system as a large and complex structure with health financing at its core, noting that DHML serves as a critical anchor for the Armed Forces’ overall medical architecture.
“If the Nigerian military health establishment is taken as a physical project, then DHML would be its foundation”, Afolayan said, adding that periodic review was essential to detect gaps and rectify fault lines that could undermine the system.
He restated DHML’s vision to become a leader in Health Management Organisation (HMO) operations and a national benchmark. While acknowledging challenges such as service-delivery gaps, delays in claims processing, rising medical costs and data-management deficiencies, he expressed optimism that collective action could address them.
“Our task is not just administrative; it is a moral and strategic responsibility. We owe it to our personnel to provide dependable and accessible healthcare”, he said, urging participants to approach the discussions with open minds to generate solutions that would uplift the health and morale of those who serve the nation, including the commanders, commanding officers and healthcare providers from military hospitals nationwide who attended the meeting.
