Yemisi Izuora
Nigeria’s commissioner for insurance, Fola Daniel has again decried the low level of insurance awareness in the country saying that droopiness is a critical issue but promised to take steps to improve on it.
The commissioner also identified lack of trust as a major challenge threatening the industry.
In a recent report by the commissioner, he said the industry has not been able to tap its potential owing to the identified areas but assured that the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) would do every thing necessary to promote insurance and restore peoples confidence in the industry.
According to him, Awareness and lack of trust still remain the biggest challenges facing insurance industry today. Meanwhile, NAICOM is still stepping up efforts to address those challenges, just as he warned that if the public does not trust the insurance institutions, the people will be reluctant to buy whatever they offer them.
He however noted that the insurance firms are currently meeting their claims obligation to those who had taken cover from them, explaining that “Insurance fund is an indemnity fund, and you can only be indemnified if prior to the event you have been insured and must have paid your premium,”.
The commissioner regretted that many lives had been lost to insurgency in the country, but most of the victims did not have insurance, but noted that in the contrary, the security officers who had died were insured and their relatives were getting insurance compensation.
“We have lost members of the armed forces and policemen to the insurgency but all of them have been paid because insurance companies pay claims,” Daniel said.
The commissioner noted that although what was paid as premium was very small in relation to the cover, it did not stop the underwriters from meeting their claims obligation.
He also said the commission had ensured that business transactions were properly conducted and risks which could be retained in the country were not unlawfully taken out.
The commissioner also spoke about cases where such risks were to be taken abroad, saying NAICOM had intervened and ensured that local capacity was first exhausted.