From left: Patrick Osadebe, head, retail sales and distribution, Wapic Insurance Plc; Aina Akintunde, general manager; Femi Obaleke, executive director; Yinka Adekoya, MD/CEO, and Bode Ojeniyi, executive director,
at a press conference kick-starting the Wapic ’Safety-on Wheels’ initiative in Lagos.
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Chuks Udo Okonta
Worried by the spate of causalities and deaths from road accidents, which according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that, “of the 11, 363 roads accidents recorded in 2016, 5,053 resulted in death”, Wapic Insurance Plc, one of the frontline underwriting companies, has disclosed its plans to launch ‘Safety-on-Wheels’ campaign aimed at tackling this menace.
The Managing Director of the underwriting firm, Yinka Adekoya, who made the disclosure at a media parley today in Lagos, noted that accidents on the nation’s roads, had taken more lives than the deadly malaria disease.
According to her, the campaign which will commence on Saturday, February 17, 2018 at the Teslim Balogun Stadium with 1000 drivers across Lagos State, will educate participants about safe road-use practices, importance of adherence to road traffic regulations and appropriate road as well as vehicle maintenance cultures.
“We are aware that road accidents have far-reaching emotional, financial and psychological effects on families and the workforce, which in turn have significant negative effects on socio-economic facets of the society. As an organisation, Wapic Insurance is triggered by this awareness to collaborate with other stakeholders to combat this menace with the ‘Safety-on-Wheels’ Initiative. Our plan is to take the campaign across the country starting with Lagos State,” she said.
R: Femi Obaleke, executive director, Wapic Insurance Plc; Yinka Adekoya, MD/CEO, and Bode Ojeniyi, executive director, at a press conference kick-starting the Wapic ’Safety-on Wheels’ initiative in Lagos.
As a social-focused risk advisory initiative, the ‘Safety-on-Wheels’ campaign, she said is conceived to empower Nigerians with relevant knowledge and apposite skills that will reduce road accidents,and raise general awareness about our collective road safety responsibility.
Targeted at raising collective consciousness about the need for road-users to imbibe and practice appropriate road-use culture in Nigeria, the initiative, she maintained, is an educational advocacy campaign executed in partnership with the relevant government agencies including the Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC) and Lagos State Transport Management Authority (LASTMA).
She posited that in the ‘Safety-on-Wheels’ initiative, drivers will not only benefit from the road-use trainings, they will also participate in a series of eye and blood pressure tests, conducted by a team of qualified medical personnel to determine their personal physical roadworthiness, adding that most especially, participating drivers will undertake specialized trainings which will equip them with working knowledge of road use and safety commandments.
Wapic Insurance has invested in this initiative and built credible partnership with state and federal road-safety bodies to provide quality trainings to all beneficiaries and provide them with necessary orientation with a view to raising social advocates for road safety and build a community of people who know that road-use rules are to protect, and not restrain.
With creating sustainable value for the society at the centre of Wapic Insurance’s social responsibility activities, the company intends to drive social progression and build safe-road useculture in Nigerians by ensuring that motorists, passengers, pedestrians and the society at large are knowledgeable about road-use commandments that guide traffic interactions.
By this, awareness that safety is not just a personal effort, but depends largely on the safety consciousness of other road users will rise to an impressive level, such that every road user takes responsibility for their own safety and others’ by adopting the right attitude on the road.
Wapic Insurance is a socially responsible corporate citizen with focus on thematic areas of Health, Education, Social Empowerment and Environment. The company is nationally and international acknowledged for its defining roles and social interventions that have consistently enhanced the quality of living and humanity.
