'Insurance Sticker Demand High Despite N550m Fraud'
By Nnamdi Duru
In spite of the N550 million fraud that rocked the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), over the production of the newly introduced Vehicle Insurance Stickers (VISER), insurance brokers have confirmed that the demand for the product is still very high in the motor insurance market.
President of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), Prince Feyisayo Soyewo, made this confirmation at a press conference in Lagos and advised the commission to effect necessary correction, to ensure that the product is still made available to the insured.
Soyewo, who reflected on the fraud that has stalled production and distribution of VISER stickers disclosed that the demand for the product is still very high and unless the product is abolished by the Federal Government, the demand for it would still rise by the day.
"Because some insureds have sampled the VISER stickers, if they place insurance with you and you cannot give them the stickers, they will not be happy with you. That is the problem it has created.
"Unless the Federal Government comes up with an announcement that it is abolished, they will still keep demanding for it", he said.
The NCRIB President also advised the commission to effect necessary correction to the VISER production plan and ensure availability of the product, which he described as what the market wants.
"I think NAICOM should correct whatever mistakes anybody must have made. VISER so far is still what we desire in the market though we heard that fake VISER is in circulation but nobody has been apprehended", he said.
A section of the NAICOM's board accused Commissioner for Insurance, Dr Oladipo Bailey, of having fraudulently inflated its production cost to the tune of N550 million.
The unit production cost of the sticker was said to have been raised from N39 to N50 in a contract awarded to a London based company, Rockstone International Limited.
A committee set up by the Ministry of Finance to investigate the fraud has since indicted Bailey.
Soyewo also commented on the effect of the last nationwide industrial action on the insurance industry. He said "it has affected the insurance industry the way it has affected other industries, enterprises and organised private sector. Ours is not different.
"We have not been able to transact business within that period and even those who managed to get to their offices could not relate with other corporate bodies, because government offices were permanently locked, banks were permanently locked, as well as most corporate bodies", Soyewo said.
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