About 3 million vehicles insured in Nigeria - NIA

From left: Director-General Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) Sunday Thomas and Commissioner for Insurance Fola Daniel at the event.

Chuks Udo Okonta

The Director-General, Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), Sunday Thomas, said about 3 million vehicles are presently covered under the Nigerian Insurance Industry Database (NIID).

The NIID is electronic platform designed by the NIA to store data of insured vehicles, aid verification of genuine policies and curb the menace of fake insurance certificates.

Thomas disclosed this today at the on-going 2015 Seminar for Insurance Correspondents in Ilorin, Kwara State.

He noted that though significant progress has been made in the fight against fake certificates, the association will not rest until fake papers are total eradicated.

He said the association has also deployed the marine platform to keep fake certificates out of marine business.

Worried by the burgeoning quackery that has further escalated the circulation of fake insurance papers which has negatively rubbed on the the industry, the association launched the NIID.

The NIA is collaborating with security agencies to rid the industry of fake papers.

So far the platform has captured over 3 million vehicles and the association is launching the project in collaboration with state governments.

NIA said it has found out that over 75 percent of vehicles plying Nigerian roads do not have verifiable insurance papers.

With the NIID, a motorist can send SMS to 33125 with policy number or vehicle plate number or visit the NIID website to verify genuineness of his or her vehicle insurance papers.

According to the NIA, the current effort represents a steady improvement, considering the fact that NIA uploaded about 300,000 policies when the database kicked off in 2011.

Since about 11.5 million vehicles ply Nigeria roads, the association is working with relevant security agents, such as the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and the Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIOs) to ensure that road users have genuine insurance papers.

Through NIID, the association had deployed over 25 gadgets to VIOs in Ogun State to verify vehicles in the state, thus, increasing the patronage of genuine motor insurance policy.

The association is about launching the project in Lagos, Akwa-Ibom sates and Abuja.

Insurance operators believe that low government patronage and low awareness on insurance are some of the challenges confronting NIID project but are confident that when government at all levels abide by the compulsory insurance scheme, which motor insurance is part of the database will robustly expose those with fake papers.

Thomas said his association is discussing with the Lagos State government, to deploy the mobile devices into the state, for verification of motor insurance policies of road users. He added that Kwara State government had also been approached to key into this initiative.

Explaining the reason NIA chose Ogun State as a pilot state for the database, he stressed that insurance in Nigeria was traceable to Abeokuta, Ogun State, saying, the state was also one of the states to first indicate interest in the project.

Applauding the performance of the project since it was introduced he noted that the success achieved so far from the first module had led to the proposed implementation of the second module in marine business.