Just 2.5m of vehicles in Nigeria have genuine insurance cover

Out of 12 million registered vehicles in Nigeria, only 2.5 million have genuine insurance cover, according to the Ikeja branch manager of Cornerstone Insurance plc, Pelumi Akindumusire.

Akindumusire made this known in a chat with motoring journalists,  noting that most  motorists are in possession of fake insurance papers.

To address the challenge, he said the insurance industry intends to rely extensively on the use of the Nigeria Insurance Industry Database (NIID).

He added that the industry also partners with the Vehicle Inspection Services (VIS) and the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) to monitor fake insurance policy holders.

“On the NIID platform, when a motorist inputs his policy number or the vehicle’s registration number on the app, it will bring out the insurance details of the vehicle, this signifies that, the policy is genuine and if it did not appear, it will say record not found implying that the policy is a fake one,” he explained.

However, to improve on the effort the industry is making, he said Cornerstone Insurance Plc on its own has taken further steps to educate public drivers on the need for genuine motor insurance cover starting with third party motor insurance policy for commercial drivers.

In view of this, a team from the Cornerstone Insurance Plc will be going to the motor garages in Lagos to sensitise the drivers on the need for insurance cover with the aim of selling the third party cover to them eventually.

He said various efforts are being made in this regard. ‘’My team and I intend to cover majority of the garages in Lagos state to sensitise the motorists on the need for insurance because of its numerous benefits. Many of them do not know the importance, but just see it as ‘Police let me pass’ whereas there are many benefits attached to it. We have already done a pilot job on this. We want to do this on a monthly or at least quarterly basis; visiting different garages each month – Ojota, Surulere, Ikeja, Ogba and other garages in Lagos’’.

Cornerstone Insurance is also planning to engage the tricycle riders popularly called Keke Napep to sell a personal accident policy to the riders only. The insurance company has held meetings with officials of the riders from the local government level at Ogba/Ikeja axis and will be meeting soon with the state officials for final approval.

‘’We may extend to cover their third party liability in future but what we are concentrating on now is their personal accident liabilities. For example; if they are riding the tricycle and they have an accident and sustain injury, Cornerstone will pay for the medical expenses, permanent disability and even death on an agreed sum insured with an affordable premium,” he said.

There will also be jingles to educate and sensitise the drivers and riders before the company goes into travel insurance for local travelers+ in case of luggage loss and the like.