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Chuks Udo Okonta
The Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) has pledged to collaborate with the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) to ensure the provision of full underwriting information required in onboarding of policyholders , which would then aid claims settlement.
The Chairman of NIA Kunle Ahmed, said this in his acceptance speech presented at his investiture, held recently in Lagos, adding that inadequate information and lack of clarity at the point of onboarding clients is a precursor for a conflict at the point of claim.
He noted that the association would put in place activities and programmes that seek to always put claims payment on the front burner, including creating, at different levels of NIA, committees that will be charged with the task of discussing and recommending improvements and resolving claims disputes with the insuring public and amongst members.
The NIA Chairman submitted that his administration would also ensure standardization of pricing to the extent that each client is charged the price that is commensurate with their risk, stressing that detailed information about a risk including the survey and the implementation of the survey recommendations can potentially attract a pricing that is fair to all.
He maintained that insurance companies only issue a promissory note after consummating a transaction, the test of the promise happens only when a claim is reported. The issue he said is no longer whether insurance companies pay claims or not, stating that in year 2023, the insurance industry paid N536.5 billion in claims, a 54 per cent growth over the claims paid in 2022. “However, there is still some work to be done because companies will be unable to maximise the budget on publicity and media campaigns without paying attention to the ease of making a claim and the improvement of the claim process,” he posited.
Ahmed said the association would work with market stakeholders to self-regulate and enforce market best practices amongst members from the point of onboarding a client to claims payment, stating that operators must continually look for a reason to pay a claim, rather than look for a reason not to pay a claim.
