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| Commissioner for Insurance Fola Daniel |
Chuks Udo Okonta
The National Insurance
Commission (NAICOM) electronic platform for the regulation of the insurance
industry would be fully deployed by middle of this year, Inspen has learnt.
It was gathered that
insurance operators would file their 2014 accounts through the e-platform that
is presently being test run.
Inpen learnt that the
commission would this week examine universal software that has been procured
for the platform.
The platform would also kick-start the issuing of unique identification
number to all insurance policyholders in the country.
Director Research Strategy and Information Technology, Adamu Balanti, said the
unique policy identification system is to monitor and account for all policies
issued.
He noted that the system will reduce to the barest minimum the prevalence
of improper records regarding policies issued, adding that with the system,
NAICOM will be able to track the activities and revenues being made by
insurance companies and brokers.
He said: “This system is to
build an integration point for the various stakeholders involved in insurance
policy issuance. Generate and provide a unique identification number for every
policy issued, in order to track and provide relevant statistics on them.
“It would help develop a
capacity in NAICOM to record all policies issued by Nigerian insurance
companies. Ensure proper accountability of all premium returns by insurance
companies, capture all businesses done by every broker through the underwriter,
ensure proper accountability of all insurance levies received from brokers,
provide easy access to data regarding policies issued and support analysis and
policy based decision making.”
Balanti said the portal provides a single point of access for all NAICOM services,
validate the authenticity of insurance policies and accessible from any
location within Nigeria. He added that the system should be able to interact or
communicate with other systems/users such as FRSC, Police, and VIO.
“We want to identify each individual insurance policy issued in the
country; this is why we are developing, what we called - Unique Policy
Identifier (UPI). With it, each
insurance policy document issue in the country will have a unique
identification number. The Unique number will be used to identify that
document.
“We are also developing a database of that identification number, so that
anybody in the country can query the database to confirm if the policy document
before him or her is genuine or not. We are hoping that in the next few years,
we will get it out,” he added.
He noted that the initiative cuts across all insurance product lines,
adding that all policies procured by the public must have this unique number.
He said the concept is not a duplication of the Nigerian Insurance Industry
Database (NIID) being promoted by the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA),
stressing that the NIA is collaborating with NAICOM on the project.
“We would not allow a situation where a section of the industry has made a
huge investment on a project; we come up with something to stop it. We would
collaborate with them to solve the problem of fake insurance which is giving
the industry a bad image,” he added.
He noted that the number will be issued from a central place, adding that
NAICOM is moving to a situation where its information and telecommunications,
will continue to interface with those of the operators. So, that as the operators issue policies,
their systems interact with that of the commission seamlessly.
He said the commission is developing an information and technology policy
for the industry that would put the operators on the page with the commission.
“That
document would ensure that we have a minimum standard for everybody. In fact,
the draft for the policy has been done, every soon, we would form industry
committee that would look at that, harmonise it and take input to produce the
final copy,” he said.
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