14 Million Vehicles Not Insured in Nigeria

By Sola Alabadan

The Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) has affirmed that less than 15 per cent of vehicles plying Nigerian roads at present have genuine insurance cover, indicating that the remaining 85 per cent of these vehicles are not insured at all.

As the NIA had recently informed that only 2.5 million insured vehicles have been captured in the Nigerian Insurance Industry Database (NIID) up till today, it also means about 14 million out of about 16.5 million vehicles in the country; do not have genuine insurance cover.

NIA's Director General, Sunday Thomas, confirmed this development while speaking on the threats to the survival of the nation's insurance industry.

The NIA has now added modules on claims reporting, stolen vehicles reporting and auditors' platform to the NIID portal.

The claims reporting module enables the insurance companies to report and upload the claims paid so that once the NIA flags it, it will broadcast to other companies to avoid double and fraudulent claims.

The stolen vehicles reporting module, he noted, is basically for insurance companies to upload information on stolen vehicles and once NIA approves it, the association will alert other companies.

The auditors' module allows the auditors to view policies uploaded on the website to ensure that it correlates with the revenue reported by the respective insurance companies.

To verify genuine motor insurance policies, the NIA gave mobile gadgets to Ogun State Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) for use in the state.

The NIA also said it was discussing with the Kwara State government with a view to deploy the mobile devices to the state soon so that the law enforcement agencies can be using it to verify genuine motor insurance policies.

NIA, the umbrella body of all insurance companies in the country, has therefore encouraged motorists to visit www.askniid.org to verify the genuineness of their motor insurance policy online, pointing out that if any vehicle is not on the NIID portal, the vehicle is not insured.

With a mobile device, a product of the NIID, it is now easy for law enforcement agencies and relevant authorised persons to identify genuine insurance documents.

To verify the status of any motor vehicle insurance policy, NIA informed that motorists only need to send SMS to 33125 in this format: Policy Number*Vehicle Plate Number or log on to www.askniid.org and click on "Check Policy".




Source: Daily Independent