Stories by Rosemary Onuoha

As an insurance consumer, if you suffer a loss and you send your claims demand to your insurance company, the company has a minimum of 90 days to settle your claims. However, many insurers have capitalized on this regulation to unnecessary delay genuine claims of insurance consumers. To this end, the National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, is out to ensure that genuine claims are not delayed unnecessarily.

 protesting pensioners…

With NAICOM’s dispute resolution unit which oversees the customer contact centre, companies are persuaded to settle claims within hours because some claims do not require complex investigation.

The insurance sector is regulated by NAICOM and although, the Commission admits that the issues of non settlement of claims continue to rear its ugly head now and again in the sector, NAICOM has reduced the trend significantly.

Commissioner for Insurance, Mr. Fola Daniel, said that the figure for non settlement of claims went down significantly in 2014 due to efforts of it contact centre in resolving disputes arising from non settlement of claims.

Daniel said that its contact centre was readily available to the public, as such it enabled consumers of insurance to directly phone in when they have issues with their insurers, hence the timely intervention of NAICOM compelled the drastic reduction in the reoccurring event of non settlement of claims.

The contact centre, NAICOM said has endeared itself to the general public and the Commission succeeded in resolving a lot of claims which before then had resulted in argument between the insured and the insurer.

Because the federal government wants to focus on insurance as the next growth area for the economy, NAICOM said it is leaving no stone unturned in ensuring that the insurance sector is rid of all negative perception.

Daniel said, “We cannot have a strong economy unless we have a virile insurance sector.”

NAICOM said it is set in building consumer trust and increase public awareness on insurance and it aims to achieve zero tolerance for non settlement of genuine claims because Nigerians truly desire to buy insurance but the persistent negative perception of the sector continues to scare them away.

The Commission therefore said that it intends to consolidate on the gains of the past years and is strategizing on moving the Nigerian insurance sector from third position to number one in Africa.

Daniel therefore charged insurers to imbibe the spirit of paying claims because it is the most viable advertisement tool when compared to other forms of advertisement, coupled with the fact that the sector is entering a new phase in the transformation of the insurance industry.

Daniel further added that the ‘no premium, no cover’ policy is very successful as it is impacting positively on cash position of insurers, adding that insurers therefore have no excuse not to pay claims promptly.

“The ‘no premium, no cover’ is reverberating all over the West African coast as year 2014 was a time to test its efficacy. Francophone countries are copying it as a policy and it is working. So Nigerians should capitalize on the success of the policy to ensure that claims are settled promptly,” Daniel stated.

NAICOM said that low public trust and awareness are still the biggest challenges confronting the insurance industry.

According to him, “The biggest challenge of insurance industry still remains low public trust. If the public do not trust insurance companies, people will not buy insurance. The other challenge is awareness. People are still not aware of insurance”.

Daniel said that the transformation of the sector is helping to build consumers trust and awareness while it has increased access to insurance, urging insurance companies to collectively create the needed awareness and build public trust.