Ebere Nwoji
The Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), has said over 2.5 million vehicles plying Nigeria roads this year got their genuine motor insurance policies from its members.
The association said these represented motor vehicles that have genuine motor insurance policies.
The Director General NIA, Mrs Yetunde Ilori, disclosed this at a media briefing on Monday, to announce a campaign on the Nigeria Insurance Industry Data Base (NIID) and promotion of genuine motor insurance policy tagged: “Wetin You Carry.”
She said the association was determined to ensure that all motorists in Nigeria purchase their insurance policies from genuine insurers.
She explained that the, “Wetin You Carry,” campaign to be championed by a 33 uniformed men and women team known as ‘The Insurance Court’ on Lagos roads would commence today and would last for one month.
She said the objective was to increase productivity and generate more premium for the industry.
Ilori, also said the target of the association was to ensure that in the next few years, the 12 million vehicles plying Nigerian roads according to Federal Office of Statistics have genuine insurance cover.
She said motorists in Nigeria had continued to patronise quack insurance sellers because they are not able to differentiate between genuine insurers and fake ones.
This, she said was why the association resolved to concentrate on awareness creation so that vehicle owners would identify genuine operators and stop patronising quacks.
“We have a platform from where we capture what insurance companies have been able to sell and what we have here shows that just over 2.5M motorists have bought genuine policies.
“In Lagos State alone, we have not done up to 50percent, so where are the rest? It’s either they are not insuring or they are buying fake insurance policies,” she added.
“Wetin You Carry campaign will curb the selling of fake insurance policies stressing that the insurance court will enlighten motorists on the USSD code *556*11 to ascertain if their insurance policy is genuine or fake.”
She noted that the insurance court billed to cover Lagos State in one month and then move to other states would employ friendly approach in creating the needed awareness.
“The insurance court is not there to punish anyone but to make sure they are carrying something valuable and to make sure their insurance policies are not expired
“People don’t need to get caught before they know that what they have is fake, the USSD code tells you if your policy is fake or not, your expiring date and also allows you to make complaints” she said.
She said the next phase of the campaign would be the accessibility to purchase a policy.
