Commissioner for Insurance, Fola Daniel

By Nnamdi Duru

The Complaints Bureau set up by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has facilitated the settlement of various claim disputes between some insurance companies and their aggrieved customers.

The commission’s Assistant Director in charge of Corporate Affairs, Mr. Lucky Fiakpa who confirmed this in a statement in Abuja over the weekend said the bureau helped various feuding parties resolve 52 cases, resulting to the settlement of claims worth N1,220,645,790.09 in the first half of this year alone.

In the period under review, the bureau dealt with a total number of 349 cases and held four adjudication meetings, he said.

According to Fiakpa, out of this figure, 86 of them were fresh complaints while the remaining (263) were either existing or ongoing cases.

The outstanding claims, he said, were currently receiving the attention of the commission, with a view to achieving a quick resolution to the satisfaction of all the parties to such disputes particularly, the insureds.

Fiakpa explained that the resort to the bureau for settlement of claims disputes by the insuring public was a pointer to the level of awareness of this channel of dispute resolution in the commission.

“Insurance companies have been made to accept the fact that it is no longer business as usual as their responses and compliance with the commission’s directives had witnessed an improvement compared to previous periods.

“Consequently, not less than 85 per cent of the insurance institutions responded to queries or directives issued to them for claim settlement during the period,” Fiakpa stated.

“Majority of the 15 per cent residual were largely claims already before courts of competent jurisdiction and therefore prejudicial for the commission to intervene,” he added.

The complaints received this year were mainly those involving non settlement of claims on motor insurances, marine, life, bond issues and pension matters.

The complaints were received from individual policy holders, beneficiaries, and government agencies, SERVICOM, Legal Aid Council and Public Complaints Commission.

Before, the insurance regulatory body has continued to demonstrate its commitment to consumers’ education and value-added performance by the insurance industry.