Yemisi Izuora
The Nigeria Insurers Association (NIA) said it will tap on the Energy and Allied Insurance pool of Nigeria (EAIPN) platform to curb capital flight, build local capacity in Oil and Gas underwriting and increase retention of oil business locally.
The NIA also said that the Marine Module of the Nigerian Insurance Industry Database (NIID) has uploaded over 7,000 marine policies into the database.
The Chairman of the NIA, Mr. G.U.S. Wiggle, disclosed this in Lagos said that the marine module of the NIID has become fully functional and member companies have started uploading their marine certificates.
He said the Association haven succeded in the motor module of the NIID advanced to the marine which had a lot of outflow of which the NIID was deployed to restrain the fraud of fake marine certificates.
He said that the Association has sustained engagement with the relevant stakeholders such as CIBN, NCRIB, Nigerian Customs Service and NAICOM to seek their support for the initiative. We intend to reach out to other relevant institutions.
The aim is to plug the leakages in import business resulting in loss of billions of naira premium accruable to the insurance industry, this he said attests to the general acceptability of this project and the need to support it in the interest of the industry and the national economy.
He added that the Technical Management Board led by a past chairman of the association, Mr. Wole Oshin has been inaugurated while Africa Re has been appointed as the Pool Manager. Twenty (20) member companies have so far subscribed to the Pool.
It would be recalled that NIID was introduced into the Nigerian Insurance Industry in 2011 and till date has uploaded about 300,000 policies.
NIID is electronic platform designed by the NIA to store data of insured vehicles, aid verification of genuine policies and curb the menace of fake insurance certificates.
With the NIID, a motorist can send SMS to 33125 with policy number or vehicle plate number or visit the NIID website to verify genuineness of his or her vehicle insurance papers.