NIA says only five million vehicles have genuine insurance

Not more than five million vehicles out of the estimated 12 million plying Nigerian roads have genuine insurance, the Nigeria Insurers Association (NIA) has said.

Its Chairman, Eddie Efekoha, said the data was obtained through the Nigeria Insurance Industry Database (NIID).

Efekoha revealed this at a media parley in Lagos, adding that the NIID has impacted positively on the operations of insurance companies.

The number of vehicles captured, he said, fell below expectations going by the number of vehicles in the country.

He stressed that the industry was working to capture all vehicles plying the nation’s roads and will sustain the drive.

According to him, “The association is forging ahead in the implementation of the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) code. Discussions between the Association and Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), for deployment of the USSD have progressed significantly and an inter-agency publicity committee has been put together between NIA and NIBSS with a view to publicising the project to engender public support and acceptability.

“When fully operational, the USSD code is expected to close the gap encountered in the operation of the NIID as the code will not require internet connectivity for verification of motor insurance certificates across the country.”

Touching on the construction of the association secretariat , he said the construction of the seven -storey building will soon commence as over N500 million has been realised for the project.

He recalled that following his election as 22nd Chairman of the association, he promised to give further impetus to the development projects initiated by his predecessor, notable amongst which is the New NIA House Project.

He said he was delighted that the journey the association commenced about three years ago, aimed at building a befitting NIA Towers, will soon crystallized.