Dangote Pays N5b Premium to Insurers in 2016

• Dangote Pays N5b Premium to Insurers in 2016

Dangote Industries Limited paid over N5 billion as insurance premium in 2016 to insurance companies that insured its insurance portfolio, Chairman, Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote has said.

Dangote who was represented by the Group Chief Risk & Insurance Officer Dangote Industries, Dr. Adenike Fajemirokun, spoke yesterday on the topic, ‘Issues and Challenges of Consumers in the Management of their Insurance Portfolio,’ at the at the First Interactive Session with Major Consumers of Insurance Products and Services organised by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) held in Lagos.

He however said some insurance firms are owing Dangote claims of over N400 million since 2012, and called on insurers to collaborate with the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) for achievement of transformation agenda.

He said they also expect NAICOM to increase regulation, while insurers should also self regulate.

He said: “Insurers need to be more proactive in studying the operations of consumers and fashion out generic risk solution models. There should be stronger insurers with prompt claims paying abilities and consistent customer experience

Meanwhile, Commissioner for Insurance, Mohammed Kari said NAICOM, being the regulatory agency of the saddled with the responsibility of superintending over the insurance sector in Nigeria has, as part of its primary mandate the protection of consumers (policyholders) – both corporate and individual.

“Our gathering here today is indeed, one of the steps being taken by the Commission towards achieving that mandate. The timing for this session wascarefully chosen and considered appropriate in view of current changes in the public sector environment especially with the Executive Order on Ease of Doing Business issued to all Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government. Another reason is the yearnings shown by you, the consumers, for better services from insurance institutions among others.

“We believe the principles Ease of Doing business order should permeate through the value chain of our sectoral service providers. We happily noted that at the same time insurance institutions have also engaged themselves on the need for them to come up with a service level agreements, detailing how they would improve service delivery above what the law provide especially on timelines of task completion. I am happy to note here that they have so far agreed to shorten some tasks completion time of their major activities on the basis of self regulation and market agreements first between themselves and secondly between them and you the consumers of their services. The Commission had signalled the issue of effective and efficient service delivery to consumers as a key priority with its establishment of Complaint Bureau Unit to deal with complains from members of the public against any insurance operator. This Unit had recently been upgraded and is headed by a Deputy Director to attend to aggrieved consumers.

“ Many aggrieved consumers have continued to access this desk to register their complains with us. We advise you to take advantage of this desk and report your challenges to us and I assure you that any company found in default shall be compelled to do the needful. It is pertinent to inform you that Stakeholder engagements like this will, going forward, form a major avenue of interactions with consumers. We intend to hold this engagement bi-annually to foster a mutual relationship between the Commission, the insureds and the insurers. We believe such regular interface will afford us the opportunity to listen to your ideas and contributions towards making the industry as consumer friendly as possible”, he added.