By Demilade Adeniyi
Winners of the ILERAEKO Musical Talent Hunt organised by the Lagos State Health Management Agency (LASHMA), were on Wednesday presented their cheques at a ceremony which the General Manager Dr Emmanuella Zamba described as epochal in the journey to get more Lagosians enrolled on the health scheme.
She said under her, LASHMA is determined to flood the streets of Lagos with music that would resonate with the people on the need to keep their health at all times because health is wealth.
According to her, LASHMA decided to involve the positive energy of the youths to promote health insurance scheme with the aim of ensuring that everyone, especially those in the informal sector get acquainted with the message.
“We thought music would be the best vehicle to get the masses of the people who are in the informal sector to enroll on the scheme. We believe music would help us reach the masses. It is also an opportunity to encourage the youths who are involved in music to develop their potentials.
The Chief Executive officer of International Facility Services (IFS) Dr Tunde Ayeye said the ILERA EKO Theme song is unique because it is the first time any health scheme anywhere in the world would be premised or pushed by the creative industry.
“Ilera Eko song is all about the health and wellness of all residents of the state because a people that is not healthy cannot be productive and cannot be wealthy.”
He congratulated the winners for coming up with songs that speaks to all the visions and mandate of LASHMA, saying, we all seek wealth and for us to be wealthy, we need to be healthy. LASHMA is not just facilitating curative medicine is accessible to all, but ensuring that we all do what is needful to prevent us falling ill.
He said the vision is that by next year, all corners of the state would have known about Ilera Eko. We will storm the airwaves.
He said: ”LASHMA came with the idea of the song to promote the positive energy of the youths. We have seen that properly mobilized, youths could drive any initiative and that is why we are determined to allow them through music to ensure that all Lagosians have access to basic qualitative healthcare through LASHMA”.
Dr Olamide Okulaja in his goodwill message said the whole essence of the Ilera Eko song is to help drive enrolment, which was the mandate of LASHMA to get more Lagosians under the scheme.
He said the song is the second novel initiative from LASHMA, the first being Telemed, which has become the springboard for easy access to medicare and a creative solution to treatment even during the first wave of COVID-19.
“The Ilera Eko song is to help build enrolment into the Lagos State Health Scheme, where everyone, no matter the social status or age, would have equal access to qualitative healthcare.”
LASHMA’s Director Business Development and Marketing Mr Rotimi Olatunji praised the agency’s chief for coming up with the talent hunt which focused on discovering new music talents for the music and providing the right leadership that has been birthing uncommon initiatives that has changed the peoples’ perception about social health insurance.
He said the winners would be the face of the Ilera Eko brand and would be working with the agency to drum more participation and enrolment for the health scheme.
The highpoints of the event was the presentation of the cheques to the winners. While the first runner up Olusegun Adeogun got N500,000, Miss Oreoluwa Odelola who emerged the second runner up got N250,000. The winner, Sola Soetan won for himself One million naira.
All of them were also decorated as ambassadors of the health management brand.
Speaking on behalf of the winners, Soetan pledged the commitment of the winners to the achievement of the goals of the agency.
He thanked the state government and the agency for giving hope and support to the creative industry by coming up with the talent hunt.