The Federal Government moved to enforce compulsory health insurance coverage for workers in Nigeria’s app-based transport, food delivery and logistics sectors when the National Health Insurance Authority issued a directive on May 15, 2026, signed by N.N. Ajodi for the Director-General/CEO.
The NHIA told all location-based platforms in those sectors that independent contractors and other self-employed people working on their apps must have access to health insurance. The instruction, the authority said, flows from the September 2025 presidential directive that mandated health insurance for every Nigerian and legal resident and is backed by the NHIA Act 2022, which replaced the old National Health Insurance Scheme Act.
The directive makes compliance more than a company policy: the NHIA said meeting health insurance requirements will matter to platforms when they apply for licences, permits and other regulatory approvals. It also warned that failing to meet employer and enrollee insurance obligations would amount to a violation of the NHIA Act 2022.
Those are substantial levers. Nigeria’s population—more than 230 million people—lives under a legal framework that now regards health cover as mandatory, and regulators have been moving to tighten oversight. NAICOM has issued guidelines for international health insurance providers under the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act 2025 to balance global practice with local accountability. At the same time, state governments are expected to establish state health insurance schemes to widen access to care.
The NHIA framed the move as an enforcement step in line with its statutory mandate. In a paraphrase of its notice, the authority said it was issuing a notification to all location-based platforms within the food delivery, app-based transport and logistics sectors to ensure independent contractors and self-employed persons on their services have access to health insurance coverage.
The instruction lands in a sector that has expanded rapidly. Rising urbanisation, high unemployment and the growth of digital platforms such as Uber, Bolt, food delivery startups and logistics firms have created a sprawling gig economy. Millions of workers in that economy operate as independent contractors rather than traditional full-time employees and routinely pay healthcare costs out of pocket.
That gap—between the new statutory duty and how the sector is structured—creates the story’s central friction. The coverage requirement is being tied to regulatory approval, not just employer choice, yet the workforce the rule targets is defined by its independence from employer payrolls. Millions remain outside formal insurance and out-of-pocket spending still finances a large share of healthcare in Nigeria; the new directive asks platforms to square that reality with an obligation enforced through licensing and permits.
The Federal Capital Territory Administration has already taken parallel action on a narrower front: it has commenced free health insurance enrolment and medical outreach programmes for more than 1,500 inmates across correctional centres in Abuja. That initiative shows how state and federal arms are beginning to use different tools to expand coverage, but it also underlines how uneven access remains across the country.
The practical questions are straightforward and pressing: how will platforms document and deliver ‘‘access’’ to insurance for contractors; which regulators will police compliance; and how quickly will licences or permits be withheld from firms judged non-compliant? The NHIA tied the measure to the NHIA Act 2022 and the September 2025 presidential directive, and NAICOM’s recent frameworks under NIIRA 2025 point toward a tighter regulatory environment for both domestic and foreign insurers operating in Nigeria.
This directive will force a choice. Because compliance is now a condition for regulatory approvals, platforms that have treated workers as independent contractors without offering benefits will face strong incentives to change how they provide or facilitate health coverage. That pressure will likely accelerate the entry of insurance products tailored to platform workers and push multinational and local insurers to work within the regulatory frameworks NAICOM has set out under the NIIRA 2025 reforms.
For the millions of drivers, riders and couriers who deliver Nigeria’s daily services, the immediate effect will depend on how quickly platforms and regulators turn policy into programs. The NHIA’s May 15 directive makes the policy case unambiguous: access to health insurance is now not only a national mandate but a regulatory requirement that platforms must meet if they want licences and permits to operate. For more on other Round Time News coverage, see Bradford City Vs Bolton: Simons sends Bolton to Wembley with 1-0 win at and Bradford City held 0-0 at Valley Parade as Bolton reach Wembley on 1-0 aggregate at
