The nation’s insurance industry has revealed plans to sell motor insurance policies through the Nigerian Insurance Industry Portal (NIIP) to address the issue of counterfeit policies among motorists in the country.
A fake vehicle insurance policy is a counterfeit insurance policy that is unauthorised and not recognised by the regulatory insurance bodies and any official. This means the insurance policy does not exist beyond the paper certificate that criminal agents and brokers provide and unauthorised source offers.
This was disclosed at the 2023 Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria – Offices Representatives Committee (CIIN-ORC) Workshop, by the Director-General, Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) Mrs. Yetunde Ilori, saying that insurance companies selling motor policies have to sell electronically through the platform, a development that would weed out paper documents that promotes the vices of counterfeiters.
Before now, it has often been reported in the industry that local governments, car licensing, and registration offices play a big role in the activities of fake insurance policy agents because they often go between vehicle owners and insurance policy providers.
However, the advent of technology has helped to change the way businesses are done all over the world and Nigeria is not an exception. Technology has positively impacted how the motor insurance business is transacted, giving the insured the power to ascertain the genuineness of their policy.
Now, with the help of technology and mobile phones, motor insurance policyholders in every nook and cranny of Nigeria can verify the genuineness of their policies online in real time, using a dedicated platform or code such as askniid.org or the USSD code *565*11#. This is courtesy of the Nigerian Insurance Association (NIA) which has developed a tool to checkmate fake compulsory insurance certificates.
According to the NIA’s DG, the industry had engaged the 36 governors through their platform – the Governor’s Forum and the deployment would be done across the nation.
Ilori was concerned over the huge funds the industry loses yearly to the menace of counterfeiting of insurance policies, adding that such menace has to stop so the industry can contribute its quarter maximally to the economy.
She also warned underwriting firms selling policies below statutory approved rates, she maintained that the new initiative would halt their operations as all policies sold would be monitored electronically from the portal.
Recall that the chairman of NIA Olusegun Omosehin, said at the 2023 Insurance Meets Tech conference that the insurance industry is working with state governments to block premium leakages through deployments of electronic covers.
He however said that the deployment of e-covers and other measures taken by the operators would shoot insurance gross premium to N1 trillion, which has been an age-long target for the industry.
The industry, he said, has progressed a lot in the area of technological adoption, while believing that tech and digitalisation will steer the insurance industry to meet its expectations, even as he promised that operators will continue to partner with tech companies in a collaboration that will yield a positive result.
He stressed that the industry is leveraging technology on the adoption of third-party motor insurance and has partnered with several states including Lagos State to enhance insurance adoption, especially, from motorists in the country.
According to him, “We, as insurance operators, believe technology and digital resolution will enhance insurance operations, deepen penetration and acceptance in the country. To this end, we have collaborated with some state governments, including Lagos State to enhance third-party motor insurance adoption.”
He is optimistic that technology is a leveler, a platform that will give the insurance industry the needed breakthrough, and that insurance operators are open to its adoption.
