Govt assets under-insured — NAICOM

The National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, has said that most assets of the Federal Government are never adequately and appropriately insured. Commissioner for Insurance, Mr. Sunday Thomas stated this at a sensitisation workshop for insurance desk officers of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, MDAs, on the insurance of Federal Government assets and liabilities in Abuja. Thomas consequently implored the MDAs to domesticate and help in the enforcement of compulsory insurances. Thomas said: “It is very worrisome to the Commission that most assets and liabilities of government are never adequately and appropriately insured, which further accentuated the need for urgent measures to be put in place by the Commission to ensure that government gets value for money in the purchase of insurance by MDAs and that it is the desire of NAICOM to change this narrative for good.

“The essence of insuring government assets and liabilities is to cushion the impact and reduce the burden that the government would have to bear in likely occurrences of catastrophic events such as natural disasters, fire, accidents, building collapse, injuries or death to third parties, etc, thereby saving the government money which can be channelled towards augmenting the needs of the citizenry, providing infrastructure, and creating employment, among others.”

Thomas noted that it has now more than before become imperative to put in place measures to guide MDAs on procuring adequate insurances for assets under their watch, stressing that the provision of Section 7 (d) of the National Insurance Commission, NAICOM Act 1997 stipulates that the Commission shall ensure adequate protection of strategic government assets and other properties.

According to him, Section 7 (f) of the Act, also provides that the Commission shall act as Adviser to the Federal Government on all insurance related matters. He said it is pertinent to note that the Commission can better achieve its task with the full cooperation of the MDAs.

“As you may be aware, NAICOM in 2009, launched the Market Development and Restructuring Initiative, MDRI project which aimed at creation of awareness on compulsory insurance products, education of the public on the long-term benefits of insurance to policyholders and the economy at large, among others.

While NAICOM bore the responsibility of disseminating key messaging on the benefits of compulsory insurance, we relied on government MDAs to help domesticate the initiative in their respective offices and perhaps, serve as the primary vehicles for enforcement of compulsory insurances in their various MDAs,” he said.