Yemisi Izuora
The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) are stepping up strategic partnership aimed at leveraging geospatial data and satellite technology to expand insurance access, strengthen enforcement, and enhance risk management across Nigeria’s insurance ecosystem.
The collaboration, agreed during a high‑level engagement between both institutions, seeks to deploy space‑based intelligence and data‑driven solutions to support national economic resilience, financial inclusion, and sustainable development.
Speaking during a visit to the Commission, Dr. Matthew Olumide Adepoju, Director General of NASRDA, explained that the partnership would harness NASRDA’s geospatial and satellite capabilities to generate accurate, evidence‑based datasets. According to him, these datasets will underpin modern insurance products, strengthen regulatory enforcement, and unlock economic value at both federal and sub‑national levels. He further highlighted the importance of insurance in safeguarding high‑value national assets, citing a previous insured satellite replacement as a practical demonstration of insurance effectiveness in managing sovereign risk.
On his part, Mr. Olusegun Ayo Omosehin, Commissioner for Insurance and Chief Executive Officer of NAICOM, emphasized that the initiative aligns strongly with NAICOM’s strategic transformation agenda and its commitment to swift, results‑oriented reforms. He noted the opportunity to deploy geospatial intelligence to identify public buildings and other insurable assets for compulsory coverage, as well as to support the development of a robust national catastrophic risk insurance framework.
NAICOM reaffirmed its core regulatory pillars—policyholder protection, regulatory capacity enhancement, legal and regulatory modernization, financial soundness through recapitalization, and innovation and sustainability—underscoring that the partnership directly advances its innovation and access objectives.
Under the partnership framework, both agencies will collaborate on the development of a national catastrophic insurance framework, high‑resolution property mapping and the creation of a national property database, enhanced enforcement of compulsory insurance for public buildings, and the advancement of insurance penetration through innovation and sustainability initiatives.