Health Consultant (Re-Advertised) at Nina Jojer Limited: Driving Health Financing Solutions in Nigeria

Nina Jojer Limited, a reputable Nigerian-based consulting firm established in 2014, is at the forefront of delivering impactful public policy solutions, business strategy, and technical services across Sub-Saharan Africa. We are currently seeking a highly skilled and dedicated Health Consultant to join our team, focusing on a critical initiative to strengthen health financing and achieve Universal Health Coverage in Nigeria.

This re-advertised position offers an exceptional opportunity for a professional to contribute to a vital project aimed at operationalizing the integration of HIV services into State Social Health Insurance Schemes (SSHIAs). As external financing for HIV becomes increasingly uncertain, Nigeria is committed to expanding domestic financing, making the role of SSHIAs in purchasing essential services and protecting vulnerable populations more crucial than ever.

The Challenge: Bridging the Gap in Health Insurance for HIV Services

The National Blueprint for Integration of HIV into State Health Insurance Schemes provides a foundational policy, but the practical operationalization remains a significant challenge. Key issues include ensuring that critical services such as PMTCT (Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission), paediatric HIV, and adolescent HIV services are clearly:

Visible: Recognized within benefit packages.
Costed: Assigned appropriate tariffs.
Coded: Properly categorized for claims.
Claimable: Easily processed by providers.
Understood: By both providers and clients.
Routinely Monitored: Tracked effectively within insurance systems.

Without clear guidelines, states often face challenges such as informal payments, weak claims processing, low provider confidence, and limited data visibility. This is particularly critical for the mother and infant pair, as PMTCT encompasses a continuous spectrum of care from pregnancy through delivery, breastfeeding, infant follow-up, and Early Infant Diagnosis. The current disconnect between HIV programme data and health insurance data systems means that while states may track service utilization and insurance enrollment separately, they often lack the integrated view necessary to determine whether target clients are enrolled, utilizing covered services, protected from out-of-pocket payments, and reflected in claims.

This consultancy, supported by UNICEF, will move beyond policy review to a practical operationalization and systems strengthening process. The goal is to document existing structures, clarify institutional roles, enhance enrolment and awareness, and strengthen routine tracking of enrolment and service use through existing facility and insurance systems, avoiding the creation of parallel reporting structures.

Key Responsibilities and Scope of Work

The selected Health Consultant will undertake comprehensive work at both national level and across six key states: Rivers, Kaduna, Oyo, Bauchi, Adamawa, and Kwara. The focus will be on the following populations and service continuum:

Target Populations:

Pregnant women: With special attention to those living with HIV and those eligible under vulnerable group or maternal health financing arrangements.
Breastfeeding women living with HIV: Including mother and baby pairs requiring follow-up throughout the breastfeeding period.
HIV-exposed infants: Covering EID, sample movement, result return, postnatal follow-up, and linkage where required.
Children aged 0 to 14 years living with HIV: Ensuring ART continuity, paediatric formulations, monitoring, and follow-up.
Adolescents aged 10 to 19 years living with HIV: With reporting adaptable to national programme age bands and scheme categories.

Service Continuum to be Mapped (Areas to Test):

ANC and pregnancy entry point: Assessing enrollment, insurance status capture, covered ANC services, and how HIV-related needs are handled within the maternal package.
HIV testing and PMTCT: Evaluating visibility, claimability, understanding, and documentation of HIV testing, counselling, ART initiation, and PMTCT follow-up.
Laboratory and diagnostics: Determining claims or financing routes for EID, viral load, baseline tests, and relevant MNCH diagnostics, and identifying areas of potential client out-of-pocket payments.
Delivery and postnatal period: Ensuring continuous insurance coverage through delivery, PNC, breastfeeding, and mother-baby pair follow-up.
Infant and child follow-up: Tracking HEI, EID, paediatric linkage, and ART monitoring through existing registers and insurance systems.
Adolescent HIV care: Ensuring adolescents are visible in insurance enrollment, service utilization, claims, and programme monitoring.
Client awareness: Assessing whether women, caregivers, and adolescents understand their insurance rights and know where to report charges or denial of service.

Qualifications and Experience

Education:

An advanced degree in Public Health, Health Economics, Pediatrics, or a related field.
Demonstrated experience with PMTCT programme design or implementation, and health financing.

Language:

Fluency in English language and excellent English writing skills are essential.

Work Experience:

Seven to ten years of experience in HIV/AIDS and/or health financing.
Demonstrated knowledge of PMTCT, paediatric HIV, and MNCH programming.
Proven experience in policy review and stakeholder engagement in Nigeria.
Strong analytical and technical writing skills.
Familiarity with pediatric and adolescent HIV/TB data systems (e.g., DHIS2, NDARS) is an advantage.

This is a challenging yet rewarding opportunity for a professional passionate about health systems strengthening and improving health outcomes for vulnerable populations in Nigeria. Join Nina Jojer Limited in making a tangible difference.