By FAVOUR NNABUGWU
Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) has imposed pre-qualification fees on bidding to insure its assets. This is coming on the heels of
insurance operators accusing government and its agencies of lack of patronage. The electoral body  has asked for bidding fees of about N 100, 000.00 from insurance companies and brokers before they are qualified to tender to insure its assets for 2011 if they win the bid.

Vanguard investigations revealed that INEC squeezed about N 4.9 million from underwriters and about N 200 million from insurance as pre-qualification fee, which was paid to the account of the electoral body upon which receipt was issued.

Some of the companies and brokers were dropped on the way in spite of the non-refundable fee. This means that the 49 registered insurance companies that indicated interest in government accounts through the INEC coughed out N 204.9 million implying that the underwriters and brokers had indirectly paid part of the premium they are expecting to cover from the business.

Insurers and brokers, left with no choice, have argued that they are not contractors but only rendering services that should be paid for and not the reverse. “We are not contractors, they echoed”

Operators see the development as repulsive,  injustice, lack of equity and good governance, arguing that the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) should fight their course but because of the level of income to be generated from INEC that would boost the insurance industry contribution to GDP and also boost the companies’ capacities, they could not resist the payment.

They further argued the country could not be talking about corporate governance when high-level corruption is rooted in the government’s circle. The trade bodies, Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) and the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) Insurers and brokers argued that insurance industry and its services can be compared to banks, lawyers, medical service providers that do not pay for services they rendered to government agencies.

Former chairman of INEC, Prof. Maurice Iwu had said during a presentation of claims to deceased staff of the commission that INEC took steps to secure its members and staff, at least to some reasonable extent through the establishment of a comprehensive welfare insurance scheme for members and staff of the Commission in 2007.

The idea and resolve of the Commission, Iwu explained, tallied with the provisions section 9 (3) of new pension reform act enacted in year 2004 which provided for a Term Assurance Group Life Policy for the workforce of all public sector organisations and the private sector of the Nigerian economy.

The Commission’s staff insurance policy is a hybrid of the Group Policy Assurance (GPA) and the Group Life Assurance (GLA) policies which provide cover for remembers and staff of the Commission in the following aspects;  Death-in-Service benefits payable to the dependants of deceased staff no matter the cause of the death but subject to generally acceptable exclusion clause as the contract of insurance; Total Permanent/Temporary disability resulting from accident and natural causes and Medical expenses for career public servants arising from accident.

“This year we expect all the new facilities presently under construction to come on stream.  All things being equal, we expect to start 2012 with a total installed capacity of 28 million metric tons per annum. We do not expect anything less than 60 per cent from most of the new plants in 2012.

The ultimate is not just to become self-sufficient in cement production, but to become a net exporter of the product.” he said.

President/CEO, Dangote Cement PLC, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, corroborated that by July this year (2011), Dangote Cement alone, will be in a position to produce 20 million metric tonnes of cement yearly.  “With this, we will surpass local demand and export the excess to neighbouring West Africans countries, where demands for cement is very high,” he said.