Insurance data-base to include marine Q1 2014
Nigerian Insurance Industry Database, an initiative of the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) targeted at eliminating incidence of fake insurance and also accumulates data for the industry would be extended to cover marine business in the first quarter of next year.
Having achieved some level of progress with motor insurance since its take off in June 2012, the scheme is poised to bring down the level of fraud in marine insurance business, which the industry say is costing the sector huge millions of naira.
Sunday Thomas, director general, NIA said a programmer has been engaged to come up with appropriate package that would ensure smooth take-off the marine business, being the second phase of the initiative after motor insurance. The programmer will resume January, the DG stated.
Bola Omole, manager IT, NIA presenting a report on implementation of the NIID said a lot of progress has been made since commencement of the scheme in terms of income generation from third party motor insurance as about 70,000 vehicles has been uploaded in the NIID.
Omole said the NIID is designed as a centralised repository of all insurances underwritten by NIA member companies.
According to her, the NIID is targeting elimination of fake insurance documents which has denied our Nation of the social and economic benefits of genuine insurance transactions.
NIID is an Information Technology-based system that will facilitate easy collation and dissemination of statistical and other information relating to insurance on one hand, and also serve as a vehicle for easy identification of genuine insurance documents by Law Enforcement Agencies and relevant authorized persons.
Specifically, the Nigerian insurance industry data is to monitor and authenticate insurance transactions documents; reduce incidences of fraudulent insurance transactions and policies most especially for motor and marine policies; reduce red tape and corruption by integrating with the vehicle registration system of the Federal Road Safety commission (FRSC), the police, and other relevant government agencies; ensure easy access to statistical data for effective decision making and provide qualitative analysis of industry performance.
Omole further noted that improving road safety requires the participation of all Stakeholders. No one sector working alone can effectively reduce the number of road casualties, so the Insurance industry has been in consultations and active working relationship with agencies of the federal and state governments such as National Insurance Commission (NAICOM); Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB); Federal Road Safety Corps(FRSC); Vehicle Inspection Officers(VIO); Nigerian Customs and State’s Motor Licensing offices(MLO’s).
By: Modestus Anaesoronye