The Insurance Consumers Association of Nigeria has urged the National Insurance Commission to reverse its directive on the increase of third-party motor insurance premium in Nigeria.
INSCAN, an affiliate of the Federal Competition and Consumers Protection Commission of Nigeria, made the request in a letter signed by its National Coordinator, Chief Yemi Soladoye, titled ‘Demand for reversal of your policy directive on the increase of third-party motor insurance premium in Nigeria by 200 per cent under one week notice to the Nigeria insurance consumers’.
It wrote with respect to the insurance industry’s regulator circular with the number ‘NAICOM /DPR/CIR.46/2022’ dated 22 December 2022, which increased the Third Party Motor Insurance premium in Nigeria by 200 to 400 per cent for different categories of motor vehicles, and by implication, giving only one week notice to the insuring public of Nigeria to comply.
INSCAN said the regulator failed to understand the full implications of its directive that the real organ it would punish was the Nigerian insurance consumers who provided the income that accrue to the entire insurance industry.
“Though, you threatened to sanction your insurance operators that may fail to comply with your directive come 1st January 2023, yet, the truth of the matter is that your operators and yourself will be the beneficiaries of the windfall that will accrue from the directive, while the insurance consumers, are in the real sense of it, the ones being sanctioned,” it stated
It added that the almost 20 million motor insurance consumers in Nigeria deserved more than one week notice from NAICOM.
INSCAN stated, “We are not impressed by your corresponding increase in the indemnity limit to N3m etc as the questions on the lips of our members are who requested for this increase to N3m; How many claims have you really settled even when the limit was N1m; Are you not aware that many fleet owners on their own volition do pay an extra premium to the underwriters to increase their TPPD limit to N5m; and where are the insurance ratios to justify that premium increase by a whopping 200 per cent.”
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