Chuks Udo Okonta
The Commissioner for Insurance Fola Daniel, has identified limitations hindering full enforcements of compulsory insurance laws.
Daniel in an interview with a national daily, said the Police that would have helped in the enforcement is overstretched, making it impossible for them to effectively carry out the assignment. He also identified inadequate resources as a setback, stressing that successful enforcement would require huge resources.
"As a regulator, I have to collaborate with law enforcement agencies to enforce compulsory insurances. We however have limitations. For instance, we have to work with the police who are already fully engaged thus making it difficult in addition to the huge resources required to conduct a nationwide enforcement," he said.
He noted that the commission as part of its strategy, realized that it is not fair if it do not educate the people before it start to enforce the laws, adding that when people see values, there will be large voluntary compliance and that is what the commission has done.
"The police have been overstretched. We use police on ad-hoc basis. So we are looking at what we can really do; we are looking at the totality of the stakeholders. The law stipulates that 25 per cent of the net premium in respect of compulsory insurance should be set aside for the purpose of providing grant or equipment to institutions engaged in fire fighting services. It means if the rate of compliance is high, then the fire services will get more from the insurance industry," he added.
He said NAICOM is reinvigorating its awareness campaign and stakeholders engagement to engender compliance, stressing that where there is apparent breaches, enforcement remains an option to adopt.
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