BY ROSEMARY ONUOHA

The Nigerian Insurers Association, NIA, has urged Nigerians to change their negative perception about insurance saying that the sector has changed for the better.

At a media parley in Lagos, Chairman of NIA, Mr. Olusola Ladipo-Ajayi said that the poor public perception is affecting the growth of the sector hence the public should do a u-turn and begin to see insurance in a new light.

Ladipo-Ajayi said “Most Nigerians are averse to insurance because they don’t see any value in it, but the truth is that insurance offers a lot of value.”

He said that people think that insurance is an additional tax just as they think that putting on the safety belt is to prevent law enforcement agents from arresting them, whereas the purpose is to save their lives.

“People don’t have that attitude to risk matters they just see it as an additional liability. People don’t see it as a safety precaution they just see it as a way of avoiding being apprehended,” Ladipo-Ajayi noted.

Meanwhile, the NIA chairman has advised members of the public to always read their insurance policy documents, saying that policy documents are now written in plain language.

The NIA said insurers have made the language of the policies they sell user friendly so that insurance buyers can ask questions where necessary before taking their final decisions.

Ladipo- Ajayi also said that it is so far satisfied with the performance of its Customer complaint bureau set up last year to mediate between its member companies and the insuring public.

He said though the industry regulatory authority the National Insurance commission has its own complaint bureau but that as a self regulated industry, the insurers did not want to wait for the government bureau to settle issues for them but has set up its own bureau to serve as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism.

He said NIA has zero tolerance to any member that would disobey the verdict of the bureau adding that all members agreed to abide by any judgment spelt by the bureau but that any customers of any insurance company who is not satisfied with the judgment of the bureau is free to seek redress in a law court.