The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) is stepping up efforts to transform compulsory insurance from one of the country’s most ignored legal requirements into a functioning social protection system, a move that could shield millions of Nigerians from financial losses while opening significant growth opportunities for insurers.
For years, compulsory insurance laws have existed largely on paper, with weak enforcement, low public awareness and widespread use of fake insurance certificates denying accident victims compensation and leaving businesses and public buildings exposed to avoidable risks.
Now, NAICOM, under the leadership of Olusegun Ayo Omosehin, the commissioner for Insurance is pursuing an aggressive stakeholder engagement strategy involving law enforcement agencies, government institutions and other strategic partners to improve compliance across the country.
The latest step in that strategy was a one-day training programme for officers of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Command, where the Commission sought to strengthen enforcement of Motor Third-Party Insurance and other compulsory insurance policies, while improving the ability of officers to verify genuine insurance certificates and detect fake policies.
