By Christopher Nnanta InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Ninety Five percent (95%) of Insurance Companies in Nigeria has embraced the Nigerian Insurance Industry Database (NIID) project introduced by the Nigerian Insurance Association (NIA).
Davis Iyasere, Seniour Manager/ Head of Corporate Communications of NIA confirmed this to online news Agency www.investadvocateng.com in his office recently in Lagos Nigeria following inquiries by www.investadvocateng.com.
“42 of the 49 recognised insurance firms doing Motor Insurance business in Nigeria have embraced the NIID initiative by NIA and have supplied their data†Iyasere said.
The Insurance Companies have fully supplied their data “and I know that NIA is partnering Courteville Business Solutions Plc, there maybe one or two other Companies involved in this, but I know officially that NIA is partnering Courteville on this database project†Iyasere said.
“We are also in partnership with Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC)†he said.
Iyasere affirmed that as a way of checking fake Motor Insurance certificates, NIA is set to issue out as many as 500,000 mobile verification devices to law enforcement officers (Nigeria Police, VIO, FRSC and state transport officers) nationwide, which they will use in detecting fake insurance certificates.
Iyasere said that despite the slight delay in the official launch of NIID, NIA is putting finishing touches to the project to make the venture a huge success; as most Insurance Firms have provided their database to the Association in order be part of the noble project.
“We are hoping that we will launch it by the end of March 2012†Iyasere said.
“We have done some retouches, we want to say that if you buy a policy, within 24 hours, you can have your plate number, it is now a requirement to get a Motor Insurance Policy before getting a new plate number or renewing your motor vehicle License†he said.
From all indications within the next three (3) months any motor vehicle with an insurance policy that the information is not stored on the NIID platform and cannot be verified by law enforcement officers will be running a foul of the law.
This is coming on the heels of reports by a couple of Newspapers that Insurers have refused to embrace the database project.
In a separate interview with Courteville Business Solutions PLC one of the companies that NIA partnered to provide Information Technology (IT) solution for the NIID database project, the Executive Director, Projects & Strategy Mr. Femi Niyi, confirmed that over 40 Insurance Companies are already on the NIID with a significant number of records of Motor Insurance Policies safely stored on the database.
The NIID solution is designed to help Insurers and NIA monitor and authenticate all insurance policies issued in Nigeria toward reducing the incidence of fraudulent transactions and the loss of business by the Insurance Companies. The Motor Vehicle Insurance Policy module is the first part of the project that has commenced while other insurance cover types are expected to commence before the end of the year.
Niyi said as at the time of filling in this Report, Law Enforcement Officers now have over 1,000 Mobile Verification Devices, which they can use to verify the authenticity of a Motor Vehicle Insurance Policy issued to Vehicle Owners from anywhere in Nigeria.
The general public can verify the authenticity of a Motor Vehicle Insurance Policy by sending a short code SMS to 33125 or go to the website to make online inquiry at www.askniid.org.
A visit to www.askniid.org by our Correspondent to verify the authenticity of the Motor Vehicle Insurance Policy issued to him showed that details of the vehicle policy was captured on the NIID database; indicating that the document was genuine.
