By ROSEMARY ONUOHA
As kidnapping appears to be assuming unprecedented dimension in the country, Mr. Oladimeji Alo, former Managing Director of Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC) has wondered why the insurance industry is yet to come up with a cover for kidnapping.

Alo who alleged that many insurance operators do not understand the environment, in which they are operating, asked if this is not a good time for insurers to introduce kidnap policy in the country.

Alo who spoke in Lagos stressed that a sound understanding of the environment should propel insurers to create such policy to guard against the crime that tends to be growing by the day.

Meanwhile, before now, Mr. Salami Owolabi, director of retail operations of Guaranty Trust Assurance Plc stated that the insurance industry is not in a position to create insurance cover for risks or loss associated with kidnapping.

Owolabi revealed that the Nigerian insurance industry is not currently positioned to fashion kidnap covers despite the fact that kidnapping is an insurable risks.

Owolabi explained that for kidnap policy to succeed it got to have large numbers so that there can be a pool of funds from which claims can be adequately and promptly settled. He noted that since many people are not keen to buy kidnap cover, pricing the product might be very expensive and the cost of mitigating will be very prohibitive to individuals that require it, thereby scaring people away.

In order to drastically reduce the menace of kidnapping, Owolabi charged the Nigerian government to sit up to their responsibility of providing security as well as creating a conducive economic and regulatory environment while curbing the recklessness of certain actors in the economy.