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by Free Insurance advice on July 19, 2012
The Nigerian Insurers Association
(NIA) have been commended by the National Insurance Commission
(NAICOM), the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), Federal
Road Safety Commission (FRSC), the Nigeria Police, Vehicle Inspection Officers
(VIO) and the Nigerian Customs Service for the development and deployment
of electronic database to eliminate fake third party motor and marine
insurance [.
NIID motor insurance verification to end faking
Through an SMS or the Internet, a policyholder can verify if his motor
insurance certificate is genuine or not. NIKE POPOOLA reports how the
inauguration of the Nigerian Insurance Industry Database can eradicate the fake
certificates syndrome
One of the major requirements to drive on
Nigerian roads is the possession of a minimum of third party motor insurance
certificate. Section 68 of the 2003 Insurance Act states, “No person shall use
or cause or permit any other person to use a motor vehicle on a road unless a
liability, which he may thereby incur in respect of damage to the property of
third parties is insured with an insurer registered under this Act.”
However, most of the vehicles in the country
either ignorantly or out of cost consciousness have continued to carry fake
certificates about. In fact, the National Insurance Commission has said that
over 70 per cent of vehicles on Nigeria’s roads are in possession of fake
insurance vehicle certificates. Law enforcement agents, whose duty it is to
check if drivers have the necessary papers to put their vehicles on the road,
have often found it difficult to differentiate between the genuine and the fake
insurance certificates.
Last week, the insurance industry, in
collaboration with other stakeholders, jointly inaugurated the Nigerian
Insurance Industry Database, which objectives are to phase out fake papers and
allow genuine insurance to thrive in the sector. With this new measure, law
enforcement agents and the vehicle owners, can easily verify the authencity of
motor insurance certificate within a minute. According to the tenet of NIID,
all they have to do is either send or SMS of the policy number on the insurance
certificate and the plate number to 33125, and immediately get a reply or log
on to www.askniid.org on the Internet.
The Commissioner for Insurance, Mr. Fola Daniel,
said that the NIID would be of great benefit to all stakeholders, including the
insurance industry, governments at all levels, policyholders, shareholders of
insurance firms and the insuring public. He said that the commission was aware
of the menace of fake insurances in the country, which had over the years
deprived the nation of the socio-economic benefits inherent in genuine
insurance transactions.
For this reason, he said the database was one
instrument that would become very handy in the control or fight towards the
eradication of fake insurances in Nigeria. According to him, NIID is expected
to facilitate easy collation and dissemination of statistical information
relating to all classes of insurance in Nigeria, and also serve as a platform
for easy identification of genuine insurances by security agencies and other
relevant authorities.
Daniel said, “It is also expected that the NIID
will provide protection to Nigerians against the dangerous activities of
insurance fraudsters, particularly the Third Party Motor Insurance Certificate
racketeers.” The commissioner added that this project was a concerted effort to
rid the nation of fake insurers and insurances. Over the past three years, he
noted that NAICOM had embarked on various campaigns aimed at sanitising and
eradicating fake insurances from the system through its Market Development and
Restructuring Initiative.
“The eradication of fake insurances and the
sanitisation of the insurance industry is one of the cardinal objectives of the
MDRI. We are of the belief that the launching of the NIID will go a long way in
assisting the commission in this campaign,” he said. The immediate Chairman,
NIA, Mr. Olusola Ladipo-Ajayi, said that the NIID would help in the monitoring
and authentication of insurance documents, reduction of fraudulent insurance
transactions and policies, most especially for motor and marine policies.
He said, “It will help in reducing red tape and
corruption by integrating with vehicle registration system of the Federal Road
Safety Commission, the Police and other relevant government agencies. According
to him, the NIID will also give easy access to statistical data for effective
decision making. At present, he said that the NIA had over 500,000 vehicle
insurance policies on the database with a daily average upload of 2,000
records.
Ladipo-Ajayi said that the NAICOM and other
stakeholders, such as the Nigeria Police Force, FRSC, Nigerian Council of
Registered Insurance Brokers have all signified sufficient interest in
ensuring the acceptance of the system as the industry database. He added that
policyholders whose vehicles’ insurance details must have been uploaded could
check their motor insurance policy status through SMS or through the Internet.
He said that mobile handsets were being configured for on-the-spot check of
insurance validity of vehicles on the road, stressing that development work was
ongoing for the marine module.
According to him, the law requires that it is
only registered insurance companies in Nigeria that can sell valid motor
insurance certificates. The chairman said that if motorists hit one another’s
cars, they would not need to fight, provided they had genuine insurance
certificates that would allow their insurance companies to bear their risks for
them. He warned that faking a motor insurance certificate was worse than faking
a drug.
“The black market thrives because the certificate
they give is not worth it, which is why they have driven the price of insurance
down. They can afford to sell low because they are not offering you anything.
An authentic motor insurance will protect you and the vehicle,” Ladipo Ajayi
said. Assistant, Corps Marshal, FRSC, Lagos, Mr. Ademola Lawal, described
NIID as a dream come true for the FRSC. He said, “We have always wanted a
database for insurance industry that will enable us to know the number of cars on
Nigerian roads.”
For this reason, he said that the FRSC decided to
endorse the project with the NIA, because it was a welcome development. A
director, Vehicle Insurance Officer, Ogun State, Bayo Otuyemi, said that the
project was a milestone in the history of insurance in Nigeria. Acording to
him, enforcement agents have often found it difficult to differentiate between
genuine and fake insurance certificates.
This new mechanism, he added, would make it
easier for them to be able to verify the authencity of insurances on the road.
He said, “We are in total support of this laudable project and we are ready to
cooperate with the insurance industry on the NIID.” Otuyemi, however, noticed
that the introduction of the NIID implies more work to be done by the insurance
companies in building confidence in the insuring public, by promptly responding
to claims that emanate from such. He said that in the past, people lost
confidence in insurance because they could not differentiate from the fake and
genuine insurance certificates.
From: The Punch
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