By ROSEMARY ONUOHA
The Nigerian Insurance Industry Database, NIID, is yet to take off because many Nigerians are yet to be captured into it, the Nigerian Insurers Association, NIA, has said.

Chairman of NIA, Mr. Olusola Ladipo-Ajayi, who said this in Lagos, noted that insurers under the auspices of the NIA want every vehicle owner in the country to be captured in the data base, saying that was the reason for  delay in the take off of the project.

Ladipo-Ajayi said “The NIID has not taken off because we want to be sure that everybody is there. Not only that everybody is there but that everybody in every nook and cranny of Nigeria will be able to be uploaded or downloaded in the data base within a specified period of time.”

According to Ladipo-Ajayi, it is easy for the people in the city centres to be uploaded into the NIID but not easy to get everybody from every nook and cranny of the country and that is what the NIA is trying to fine tune.  Apart from uploading the existing data, Ladipo-Ajayi noted that the NIA has to add new ones and make it verifiable within a specified time.

He said that if the NIA don’t get the NIID right it will be counter productive, stating “Everybody has to be there no matter where they are and that is the challenge we are facing. So it is a huge challenge that will not go overnight, but we are getting there and we will get there.

The NIA Chairman said that the public is facing the problem of fake plate licenses, fake vehicle licenses and fake drivers’ licenses and that all these things are going to be linked in the database in the process of trying to change the vehicle plate number.

He said “When you want to get a new plate number you are supposed to apply online. When you go to an insurance company and you buy your insurance, you can even start the process of getting a number plate from an insurance company because you are supposed to fill your form online but most people don’t know that they can do that, as such they still go to the licensing office and they help them to fill the form there.”