Employers to Pay NHIF Contributions for Their Staffs
Kenyan employers will be facing an additional burden of statutory deductions if the National Assembly passes a Bill that requires business owners to match workers’ monthly contributions to the NHIF.
Gathogo Wanjiru 
Doubling the Sh1, 700 that top contributors make to the NHIF ranks high on the list of targeted changes to the NHIF Act, which will be introduced to the National Assembly on Wednesday morning at a special session.
The target is to have the employees continue paying the same amounts and employers matching in a structure modeled on the NSSF.
The proposed NHIF Act will see employers pay at least Sh25 billion to the Hospital Insurance Find which will be a hit to firms that are yet to recover from Covid-19 induced crash, which triggered job cuts and business closures.
“The bill proposes to amend Section 15 of the Act to provide for the liability of employers to make a matching contribution to the fund equal to that which the employee is liable and makes it mandatory for Kenyan residents to contribute to the fund,” says the government-backed Bill to be introduced in Parliament by National Assembly Majority Leader, Amos Kimunya.
The National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) had 8.898 million members at end of June 2020, with 4.452 million coming from the formal sector and 4.546 million from the informal sector.
Formal workers contributed Sh24.89 billion to the NHIF in the financial year ended June 2017, the latest available detailed financial statement shows, a pointer that employers will pay at least Sh25 billion.
This has the potential of making NHIF the richest State-backed firm with annual collections of close to Sh100 billion given its receipts of Sh60 billion in the year to June. It paid out Sh54.3 billion to hospitals as members’ claims.
