Chairman of the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), Mr. Olusola Ladipo-Ajayi, has said the electronic insurance certificate that his organisation was about to inaugurate would see to the end of the circulation of fake insurances certificates across the country.

According to him, the Nigerian Insurance Industry Database (NIID), which the association hopes to make functional very soon would make it very easy for law enforcement agents and other stakeholders to differentiate between genuine insurance and fake insurance certificates.

“It is already being test run and we are very happy that everybody can confirm the authenticity of his or her policy by email, or through Short Mail Services (SMS),” he said.

Fielding questions from newsmen in Lagos recently, Ladipo-Ajayi said motorists and law enforcement agencies would be able to differentiate the genuine insurance certificates because details of the insured vehicle are incorporated into it even as the platform would authenticate whether the certificate the motorist is holding is genuine or not.

The chairman stated that the association was in the process of equipping law enforcement agencies with the necessary facilities to help them in verifying genuine certificates.

“To facilitate this, we are also giving some hand tools verifiers, to the law enforcement agencies in large number, that will cover all the states of the federation and the federal capital, so that they can verify your data,” he said.

The chairman also stated that drivers could still carry insurance certificates along with them in compliance with relevant sections of the third party motor insurance law, which made it compulsory to present evidence of third party motor insurance by way of presenting the insurance certificate on demand by law enforcement agents.

He explained that the NIID platform helps in the verification of authentic certificates because the law requires that it is only registered insurance companies in Nigeria that could issue valid motor insurance certificates.

While encouraging motorists to avoid buying fake insurance certificates from criminals making brisk businesses across the country, the NIA chairman said “with the genuine certificate, vehicle owners would be able to get claims from insurance companies when losses occur”.

The NIID database project was initiated by the administration of Mr. Wole Oshin in NIA and since then has gone through many transformations, with a view to perfecting the system.

“We have been trying to perfect it and looking at different scenarios and various service providers, we have really come a long way. NIA is also giving out hand-held verifiers to law enforcement agencies in large numbers and it is expected to cover all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)”, Ladipo-Ajayi added.

Source: Thisday/Nnamdi Duru