Terrorism insurance in Nigeria?

By Emmanuel Iruobe

　

As Nigeria continues to battle insurgency and terrorism mainly in the north, professionals are beginning to speculate that insurance companies would soon expand their portfolio of services to include "terrorism insurance."

"Two years ago, some foreign multinationals began to add terrorism or kidnapping to their portfolio and Nigerian companies were not ready for it," said Mr Fola Daniel, the commissioner for insurance at the National Insurance Commission of Nigeria (NAICOM).

"This became an excuse for wanting to export 90 percent of such risk abroad. What we did at the commission was to call insurers and let them know that nothing is spectacular about kidnapping that you cannot have an endorsement that will enable you to introduce kidnapping to your portfolio and a few of the companies rose to the challenge and added it to their policies so there is no longer an excuse to take this business abroad."

He believes the government can serve as reinsurers as is the case in Britain and the United States.

"We threw the challenge to the Nigeria Insurance Association (NIA) to start something, make noise, do write‐ups in the newspaper to let people know that we can do it but need government to augment and this is the case in Britain, it is the case in America and I’m sure the government will listen," he added.

Having an insurance cover for terrorism in Nigeria may help reassure investors and business owners and eventually attract more economic stakeholders to Africa’s largest economy.

Source Venture Africa