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Chuks Udo Okonta
Unmerited awards given to a life insurance company has made many of its policyholders cried out over their inability to receive certified claims from the firm.
The life underwriter was awarded, ‘Claims Excellence Insurance Company of the Year Award’ by a firm, and this was considered an absurd to policyholders, who were finding it extremely difficult to access their claims.
On reading the award report, many of the policyholders commented on the comment section of the report that; ‘if the company won such an award, it therefore means insurance is a fraud.’
Further investigations by Inspenonline had revealed that many of the policyholders have taken their case to the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and with the intervention of the Commissioner for Insurance Sunday Thomas, many of them who were been dribbled by the firm have been paid, having waited for five to 10 months.
According to one of the claimants, who was assisted by the Commissioner for Insurance to get his claims, the education policy he bought for his son was due at the time the son was to process his admission into university, but the son lost the admission offer because the insurer refused to pay.
He noted that as at the time the issue was resolved through the intervention of the Commissioner, the admission was over.
Recent cases that were also handled through the Commissioner for insurance, was on Takaful insurance. The policy, it was learnt, was due in November 2023, but the company refused to pay, a development that forced the policyholders to send life threatening messages to the marketer. This made the marketer to run to NAICOM for intervention.
Worried about these developments, concerned observers have called on NAICOM to bar insurance companies with claims settlement issues from taking awards.
They also called on NAICOM to activate its policy on publishing insurance companies with outstanding claims.
According to them taking these steps would help stop claims payment defaulting underwriters from portraying the entire industry in bad light.
