The Managing Director of Ultimate Health Management Services, Lekan Ewenla, has won the African Health Maintenance Organisation Chief Executive Officer Leadership Award for 2026.
According to the organisers of the annual award, the African CEO Leadership Award is aimed at identifying, validating, celebrating, and amplifying “the impact of Africa’s most transformative Chief Executives and Senior Business Leaders.”
Ewenla said in a statement that the award recognised the performance of his organisation in the health insurance industry, driven by innovation, professionalism, and customer satisfaction.
He stated, “We recognise the fact that health insurance is designed to make healthcare affordable, accessible, and equitable to all Nigerians, and we have been strongly committed to achieving that objective with strong collaboration with critical stakeholders like the regulator, the National Health Insurance Authority, and the network of accredited healthcare facilities.”
Ewenla explained that the management of Ultimate Health HMO recently adopted the Group, Individual, and Family Social Health Insurance Programme to expand coverage among operators in the informal sector and small and medium-scale businesses.
According to him, the initiative was designed to improve access to affordable healthcare for Nigerians operating within the informal economy.
“Right now, we are rolling out a new service level agreement with the NHIA-accredited Health Care Facilities across the country, and this agreement is basically the regulator’s standard template. We are also planning an interactive and sensitization session with the service providers to directly interface and clarify issues with the representatives of the regulator and the target market in attendance,” he said.
Commending the administration of Bola Tinubu for efforts aimed at improving health insurance coverage, Ewenla said the President had directed that about 50 million Nigerians be enrolled in the scheme.
He added that organisations would be required to obtain compliance certificates from the NHIA for government-related transactions and benefits. He further explained that Ultimate Health HMO would deploy a strategic operational framework to improve health outcomes for enrollees under the U-Health GIFSHIP initiative.
“We are going to realign the volumes of lives we have with the facilities we have signed an agreement with to guarantee the provision of qualitative services at times. We are exposing those with low enrollees to our enrollees we are bringing into the scheme,” the CEO added.
Ewenla disclosed that Ultimate Health would host a stakeholders’ meeting in Lagos in July, with leaders from the informal sector and small and medium-scale enterprises expected to participate.
He said the management was also planning engagements with the Iyaloja-General of Nigeria, Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, as part of efforts to drive participation among market traders. The company also plans to engage associations representing spare parts dealers, GSM village operators, and computer vendors.
Ewenla stated, “The reason for reaching out to her is to partner with her to enhance the well-being of those market men and women across the country because they are very large and they need to be catered to.
“We are going to deploy a flexible and incentive-driven enrolment process to drive volume on this program as we intend to lead in driving the change that we desire for health insurance in the country.”
