The National Insurance Commission on Friday endorsed the Lagos State Building Insurance Scheme, put together by Lagos State government.
Speaking at the official lunch of the scheme, Olusegun Ayo Omosehin Commissioner for Insurance/Chief Executive, NAICOM, said the commission will provide the regulatory backing, ensuring that every policy issued under it is underwritten by companies licensed and supervised by the Commission, and by no one else.
The commissioner who was represented by the Deputy Commissioner for Insurance, Finance and Administration Mr. Ekerete Ola Gam-Ikon, said “We will support Lagos State in the fight against fake certificates and unlicensed operators, because a compulsory scheme is only as strong as the integrity of the cover behind it.
“The Commission will support and insist upon a scheme architecture that is open, transparent, competitive, and accessible to all insurance operators duly licensed by the National Insurance Commission, Nigeria.
He added that “No compulsory insurance framework of this significance should be structured in a manner that excludes qualified licensed operators, creates undue monopoly, restricts fair market participation, or denies the insuring public the benefit of choice, capacity, innovation, and service competition.
“The role of the regulator is to protect the policyholder, preserve market integrity, and ensure that every eligible operator who meets the Commission’s licensing, solvency, conduct, and claims-payment standards is given a fair opportunity to participate.
“We will treat this Scheme as a national reference point. If it succeeds here, and it must, it becomes the template by which other States across the Federation can protect their own citizens. Lagos, as so often, is lighting the path.
“This is about people. It is about the market trader in Alakija, the family in Lekki, the worshipper, the tenant, the child asleep in a building that its owner did not think to insure.
”The measure of this Scheme will not be the size of the ceremony we hold today. It will be the number of Lagosians who, on the worst day of their lives, discover that they are not alone and that there is cover, and there is recovery.”
He commended the vision and the courage of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and the diligence of the Office of the Special Adviser on e-GIS and Urban Development in bringing us to this day.
He reassured that the Commission stands firmly with the Government and people of Lagos State in this historic step for the safety of our people.
