2014 Business Action on Health Awards in Community Investment (Commended): Shell Petroleum Development Company

COMMENDED: Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited

Program: Obio Community Health Insurance Scheme

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 About the Community Investment Program: The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), has operations that include exploration and production of oil and gas onshore and off shore, and gas sales and distribution. Through community investment, Shell has demonstrated commitment to improve quality of life in communities of operations.OBIO Community Health Insurance Scheme, the first of its kind in the Niger Delta, was launched in March 2010. It is an innovative, strategic social investment initiative that seeks to significantly improve access to good quality healthcare by reducing and possibly eliminating out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure and providing a steady income stream to the healthcare provider.

The Obio Cottage Hospital (OCH), one of the 27 SPDCsupported health facilities in the Niger Delta, is the selected healthcare provider for the scheme. The program, dubbed the “Obio Model”, is based on established objectives and affirmed guiding principles of sustainability and healthy competition. Enrollees pay $21/annum for indigenes (subsidized by the Local GMoU board with funds from SPDC), and $42/annum for non-indigenes, to access a comprehensive Health Benefit Package which includes surgery and in-patient cares.

Since commencement, the scheme has achieved more than a 12-fold increase in service utilization and significantly improved health outcomes. Specifically:

  • Over 6528 babies have been safely delivered with an average of 224 births/month versus only 10 births/ month before CHIS inception.
  • Safe motherhood has been significantly improved, typified by the extremely low hospital maternal mortality ratio (MMR) which stands at 38/100k live births (Nigeria’s MMR is about 600/100k live births)1.
  • Perinatal mortality equally stands at an ultra low level of less than 1/1,000 births, and HIV transmission has been prevented in more than 200 babies through the “Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission” program.
  • 81% of enrollees expressed satisfaction with the scheme and 99% said they would recommend the scheme to others.