The local underwriting firms that insured the crashed Dana Air plane have told the National Insurance Commission that the aircraft was insured for a combined limit risk of $350m (N54.95bn).
The local underwriters, who disclosed this to officials of the commission during a meeting on Wednesday, also expressed their readiness to commence the payment of initial claims of N4.6m each to relatives of the 147 passengers that perished in the disaster, which occurred on Sunday, June 3, 2011, at the Iju-Ishaga area of Lagos State.
Although the underwriters of the plane did not release any official statement after the meeting, our correspondent learnt exclusively that the lead insurer of the aircraft, Prestige Assurance Plc, disclosed its plans on how to ensure prompt relief to the relatives of the passengers as well as six crew members.
Prestige Assurance, which led six other insurance companies to underwrite the policy, reportedly told the commission that the local underwriters only took 30 per cent of the combined risk limit of N54.95bn for which the plane was insured.
The amount, according to them, covers the premium for the insurance of the aircraft, passengers’ liability and the third party liabilities.
The underwriters said that the total claims to be paid as a result of the crash might, however, not be up to the N54.95bn when the loss adjusters finished their assessment.
They assured NAICOM that the plane was adequately insured and that there were funds to immediately commence the payment of claims to the relatives of the victims.
According to them, the remaining 70 per cent liability was taken over by foreign reinsurance firms, which are already making efforts to also commence the compilation of their own share of the claims.
Prestige Assurance, it was learnt, said it was putting up customer centres in different zones of the country, where relatives of the victims of the crash were expected to come forward with evidence of being the real beneficiaries or next of kin and collect the claims.
The local underwriters, at the meeting, also said foreign loss adjusters had been dispatched to the site of the crash to investigate and come up with the estimate of the claims to be paid to third party victims.
The Commissioner for Insurance, Mr. Fola Daniel, while expressing the commission’s condolence to the families of the dead passengers, confirmed that the aircraft was properly insured and that all reinsurance contracts were duly entered into.
Source: Punch/Nike Popoola
