Underwriters plan technology to curb fake certificate in ports

Underwriters plan technology to curb fake certificate in ports

Chuks Udo Okonta

The activities of fake marine insurance certificate racketeers would soon hit the rocks as the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) plans a device to thrown them out of their illicit trade, The Nation has learnt

Former Chairman NIA Olusola Ladipo-Ajayi, said the association having succeeded in building a robust Information Technology to curb fake vehicle insurance certificate, would now focus on how to sanitise marine business which is presently ridding with fake policies.

He noted that insurers are losing fabulous sum of money to the menace, adding that the effort would block all the channels that enable racketeers perpetuate their vices.

He noted that the statutory provision for imported goods to be insured has been in Nigerian law for a much longer time than the provision of the Nigerian Content Act, adding that the provision is not being implemented because there has not been any instrument put in place to ensure compliance.

He said: “The laws are there, but enforcement has been the problem. National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) cannot go to the ports to investigate what happens there as it is not its duties. Some time ago, we made contact with the Customs and the officers said it is not their responsibility to inspect marine certificates.

“Ordinarily, when people are opening letters of credit and processing things from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), they ought to back it with local marine certificates. But how many people even take the certificate? People import things without getting genuine certificates. During the oil subsidy probe, we put up a memorandum to the National Assembly to tell them that we did not see the impact of the huge volumes of petroleum products imported or reported to have been imported. “We did not see the impact in our marine insurance premium, that is to say most of those importations were not insured locally, because if that volume of oil was imported and they were insured, we would have seen the impact on our marine insurance premium, which we have notified the National Assembly .”

He noted that the problem of marine insurance is monitoring, but one good development now is that there is a review of the Customs Act by the National Assembly, and there is a specify provision for the Customs to implement laws that have bearing on their operations and under that provision it would be their responsibility to ask for marine certificates when they are inspecting goods.

He noted that with the proposed law Customs are required to liaise with regulatory bodies like NAICOM, consult with trade associations like NIA. He said the association has written a memorandum to support it at the National Assembly.