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Chinyere Anyanwu
The Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) has urged the insuring public to take advantage of the Nigerian Insurance Industry Database (NIID) USSD code, *565*11# generated for easy confirmation of the genuineness of their motor insurance policies.
The call was made Tuesday, during a media chat with insurance correspondents at the association’s secretariat in Lagos.
Speaking at the occasion on the code, which is a platform created to enable motor insurance policy holders to confirm the genuineness of their policies, the Director General of NIA, Mrs. Yetunde Ilori, said the publicity on the USSD code has been laudable.
Mrs. Ilori explained that, “the code is a platform where you can go and confirm if your insurance policy is genuine. This one is important, especially in Lagos State where the government has come up with an automated way of checking whether your particulars are okay.
“When you take up an insurance policy, there is an insurance industry platform where insurance companies are supposed upload whatever motor insurance policy they have sold, whether it’s third party, comprehensive, accident or fire. So at the point of purchase, the question every motor insurance policy buyer should be asking is, ‘is my insurance policy already uploaded?’, so that you don’t wait until the camera picks you up and a letter is sent to your home asking you to come and pay fine. That’s what the USSD is all about.”
She stated that, “the industry has come up with a way by which you can verify the genuineness of your insurance policy,” adding, “don’t just hold the paper; be sure that what you are holding is underwritten by a licensed insurance company.”
The NIA DG, who advised the public not to wait till they are caught before checking, stated that where a policyholder’s policy is not uploaded, maybe owing to internet access challenges, such client should go immediately to the the insurance company where the policy was purchased for confirmation as every policy bought is expected to be uploaded within 24 hours.
