NAICOM uncovers pranks by some insurers on awareness creation

CFI, Fola Daniel 

Chuks Udo Okonta

The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) seems to be leaving no stone unturned in ensuring that insurance operators embrace awareness creation. This effort has led to the revelation of pranks perpetuated by some operators, who flood the commission with awareness campaign materials which are not made public after they are approved.

Inspen gathered that in a bid to make the commission believe that they are involved in awareness creation, these operators design campaign materials, present them for approval only to file them in their offices after the approvals have been secured.

It was gathered that NAICOM unearthed the pranks in the course of accessing the budget the operators made yearly for awareness campaigns.

The probe conducted by NAICOM, also revealed that advertorials made by some firms with a year are congratulatory and obituaries. A development, which the commission said can never help promote insurance practice.

Head, Corporate Affairs, NAICOM 'Rasaaq 'Salami, who confirmed the observation, said the commission in a bid to ascertain the financial commitment made by operators towards awareness creation, observed that many of the advertorials approved were not made public.

He said the commission having unearthed the pranks, has adopted measures to ensure that the operators made commitment towards awareness creation, adding that one of the measures was the re-introduction of advertorial processing fee, which would spur the operators to make public advertorials approved as they would now incur cost to secure them.

He noted that because the processing and approval were made free, many of the operators took the efforts of the commission for granted and never took the issue of awareness creation serious.