NIA says Nigeria losing out on N50bn premium yearly vehicle insurance

Zainab Iwayemi

The Nigerian Insurers Association, NIA, has said that the insurance industry loses up to N50 billion annually to the uninsured vehicles plying the Nigerian roads.

The NIA said this while lamenting the insignificant percentage of vehicles that have genuine insurance coverage. According to Ganiyu Musa, Chairman of NIA, only about three million vehicles out of 13 million on Nigerian roads are insured. In other words, this implies that about 77 percent are uninsured causing the industry to lose a huge sum of premium annually.

Revealing that NIA is in collaboration with Lagos, Kaduna, Niger, Kogi and Ogun states governments on enforcement of motor insurance through their licensing offices, he noted that discussions to ensure that motorists get genuine insurance cover at the point of renewing their vehicle particulars at licensing offices are currently ongoing with states.

“We are also working closely with the state vehicle inspection service on enforcement of third party motor insurance in the states. Out of the estimated 13 million vehicles in Nigeria only about 2,939,767 third party motor policies are in force as of April 2021,” he said.

The Chairman who happens to be the Group Managing Director/CEO of Cornerstone Insurance also disclosed that the Association is partnering with the Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC) and the police to give them access to the Nigerian Insurance Industry Portal (NIIP), to enable it ascertain if apprehended vehicle carries fake or genuine insurance certificate.