Naicom Settles 106 Complaints Involving N822 Million Claims

The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) says its Complaint Bureau addressed a total of 106 complaints brought against insurance companies and settled claims amounting to N821,917,774.66 claims in 2009.

NAICOM's Chief Executive, Fola Daniel, stated that the commission is elated that its zero tolerance of underwriting firms delaying in claim settlement or outright refusal to pay claims, yielded substantial dividend during the outgone year.

The Complaint Bureau of NAICOM received a total of 298 complaints in 2009 compared to 357 in 2008. The decrease in the number of complaints is an indication that the level of complaints on unsettled claims is on the decline. It also shows that underwriters are improving in their claims settlement.

So much priority is attached to claim settlement by underwriting firms that the NAICOM boss had to personally intervene in some cases, calling or meeting with defaulting companies and requiring them to pay within a given time frame.

This intervention contributed to the increased number of settled claims as well as the reduced number of complaints received during the year.

It is also evident from the number of complaints handled by the bureau that the insuring public is becoming aware of the role of NAICOM as the government agency responsible for insurance related matters and so insurance related complaints were forwarded to NAICOM accordingly.

This accounted for the fairly large number of complaints received from individuals, corporate bodies and government establishments in 2009.

NICON Insurance Company had the highest number of 64 settled claims involving the sum of N626,280,218.50.

On the average, the nature of complaints received in 2009 bordered on delay in settlements of claims, bond related issues and pension matters. This is similar to the cases handled in 2008.

On bond related issues, an insurance company was suspended from accepting and underwriting any kind of bond for an indefinite period during the year to serve as deterrent to others as well as encourage underwriting firms to properly standardize their internal underwriting procedures for bonds.

In furtherance of NAICOM zero claim default stance, the Commission is currently sponsoring a network television programme, called Insurance and Claims on the Nigerian Television Authority. It is dedicated to educating the public about their rights under a contract of insurance.

The Commission would have done more than this but for the fact that a good number of the complaints related to claims against companies that are in liquidation. Principal among them is Amicable Insurance Company (in-liquidation).

Substantially, the settled claims were as a result of direct correspondences between the Bureau and the insurance institutions. Few cases were subjected to adjudication. The few number of cases which were settled through adjudication involved the sum of N591 million.