The Queen of the Netherlands, Her Majesty, Maxima Zorreguieta Cerruti has lauded the initiatives of the Lagos State Government under Governor Akinwunmi Ambode towards improving service delivery especially in the expansion of access to affordable healthcare.

The Queen gave the commendation on Tuesday when she paid a courtesy visit to Governor Ambode as part of efforts to advance the United Nation’s financial inclusion advocacy as a vehicle for alleviating poverty and fostering economic growth in Nigeria.

Queen Maxima, who is also the Special Advocate to the UN Secretary General on financial inclusion for development particularly lauded the governor’s health insurance scheme, the legal framework of which has already been put in place.

“Today, I had the opportunity to visit two clinics in the state where I saw the new pilot projects  which you (Ambode) have also started looking into, which is to make health insurance possible even to the poorest of the people,” the Queen said.

She added: “I was very impressed by the leadership that the state of Lagos has taken as to coming up with a law which makes health insurance mandatory and also to be able to plan for the future and you are already giving some credit to some health facilities which of course will improve efficiency of a lot of these institutions.

“I commend you for your efforts and I will like to know from you, Mr. Governor, what is your commitment in this field?”

In his response, Governor Ambode said the Health Insurance Scheme of the state was aimed at expanding access and scaling up  health delivery in the state which is expected to commence in 2018 as the legal framework guiding its implementation has already been put in place.