Lekan Ewenla, MD at Ultimate Health, Wins African HMO CEO Award 2026

The Managing Director of Ultimate Health Management Services, Otunba Lekan Ewenla, has been awarded the African Health Maintenance Organization Chief Executive Officer Leadership Award for 2026.

The organizers of the annual award say the African CEO Leadership Award is designed to identify, validate, celebrate, and amplify “the impact of Africa’s most transformative Chief Executives and Senior Business Leaders.”

In an interview with journalists on Monday, Ewenla said the award recognizes his organization’s outstanding performance in the health insurance industry, driven by strong innovation, professionalism, and customer satisfaction.

He added, “We recognize that health insurance is designed to make healthcare affordable, accessible, and equitable for all Nigerians, and we have been strongly committed to achieving that objective through close collaboration with critical stakeholders such as the regulator, the National Health Insurance Authority, and the network of accredited healthcare facilities.”

Ewenla explained, “Recently, the management of Ultimate Health HMO adopted the Group, Individual and Family Social Health Insurance Program – GIFSHIP to provide direct exposure to operators in the informal sector and small- and medium‑scale businesses across the country. This step aims to make healthcare affordable and accessible to approximately 75 percent of Nigerians working in the informal sector.”

“Right now, we are rolling out a new service level agreement with NHIA‑accredited health care facilities nationwide, and this agreement follows the regulator’s standard template. We are also planning an interactive sensitization session with service providers to directly interface with regulator representatives and target market participants,” he said.

He commended President Bola Tinubu’s administration for its commitment to improving the country’s poor health indices and making health insurance more effective for Nigerians. The CEO noted that the President has mandated that an average of 50 million Nigerians should be enrolled in the program, backed by adequate funding and political will. He also highlighted that all small, medium, and large organizations must enroll and obtain a compliance certificate from the National Health Insurance Authority, which will become a requirement for accessing government transactions or benefits nationwide.

Ewenla further explained that Ultimate Health HMO will deploy a strategic and systematic operational framework to achieve measurable health outcomes for enrollees in the U‑Health GIFSHIP, focusing on driving volume for primary providers in line with actuarial recommendations.

“We are going to realign the volumes of lives we have with the facilities we have signed agreements with to guarantee the provision of qualitative services at all times. We are exposing those with low enrollee numbers to our enrollees we are bringing into the scheme,” the CEO added.

Ewenla disclosed that Ultimate Health will host a stakeholder meeting in July in Lagos, with the majority of leaders in the informal sector and small- and medium‑scale business owners expected to participate. He said the management is working to meet with the Iyaloja‑General of Nigeria, Chief Mrs. Folashade Tinubu‑Ojo, to encourage market men and women to enroll in the program. Similar outreach will target leaders of spare parts dealers, GSM village leaders, computer vendors, and others.

Ewenla stated, “The reason for reaching out to her is to partner with her to enhance the well‑being of market men and women across the country because they are very large and they need to be catered for.”

“We are going to deploy a flexible and incentive‑driven enrolment process to drive volume in this program as our intention is to lead in driving the change we desire for health insurance in the country,” he concluded.