By Sola Alabadan
Following the recent fire outbreak at Mandilas building in Lagos, the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers has lamented the poor attitude of the public to insurance, even as the council commiserated with victims of the fire incident.
Speaking when he led a delegation of the Council to the scene of the fire incident, the President of the Council, Babatunde Oguntade lamented that the fire incident had further led to the hardship in the country, considering the fact that those who were victims of the fire were Nigerians.
Oguntade stated that the losses from the fire incident could have been mitigated if the victims had adequately insured their assets and utilised the services of insurance brokers that are the professional intermediaries in the insurance value chain.
While calling on Nigerians to imbibe the culture of insurance for the mitigation of their exposure to risks, Oguntade opined that government at all levels needed to pay more attention to enforcement of existing laws backing compulsory insurances in the country, to help the government and the people protect their human and material assets, as well as grow the insurance industry.
The NCRIB President added that “it remains inexpedient for government to continually seek to provide palliatives for victims of calamities. Instead, they could encourage or assist them to pay insurance premiums, to enable them make claims that would be consistent with the volume of their losses when they occur”.
He seized the opportunity to underscore the roles of the insurance brokers in educating insurance clients (existing and potential) about benefits of insurance, while also acting as their dependable allies in the event of claims payment.
