Do you have unpaid claims, your insurer is looking for you?

Are you one of those on the long list of insurance companies’ unpaid claims, then, note that your insurance company is waiting for you to come and complete your documentation.

The insurance companies said you are on the long list because you could not complete your documentation to be able to make claims.

They said also that, it is not as if they don’t want to pay, but that they really want to pay, and so want the affected customers to come and complete documentation to make their claims.

In this vein, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has given the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) an ultimatum to advertise in prominent Nigerian newspapers the list of unpaid claims by all insurance companies.

Read also: Consumers to enjoy better services as NAICOM comes hard on firms over claims

The directive also says that affected insureds should approach their respective insurers to file documentation and make claims.

Rasaaq Salami, head of Corporate Communications and Market Development, NAICOM providing clarifications on issues raised during the last Insurers Committee meeting held in Lagos, said,

“NAICOM has mandated the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) to publish details of outstanding claims in prominent newspapers.”

According to him, this initiative aims to spur policyholders to come for their unpaid claims.

“The NIA is given a two-week timeline to execute the publication, with a three-month monitoring period to assess improvements. If progress is lacking after three months, regulatory action may be taken”.

Read also: NAICOM gives insurance firms one month to submit report on unpaid claims

“The report from the insurance companies is that some of these outstanding claims are not as if the companies are not really ready to pay, but that some of the policyholders have not come up with the appropriate documentation to conclude on this process. And that is why we gave this directive through the insurance committee”.

Ebelechukwu Nwachukwu, chairman of the publicity sub-committee of the Insurers Committee had earlier hinted that claim settlement was discussed with the regulator at the meeting, particularly on outstanding claims.

She noted that NAICOM had initially encouraged companies to publish/do publications around claims, noting that various reasons, especially documentation not provided were some of the drawbacks.

The regulator however encouraged companies to advertise unpaid claims, but the decision was agreed to be done on the platform of NIA, initially for the first few months actively to encourage people who have lodged claims to contact their insurance companies, and after three months we see the impact of that, if it’s still outstanding then companies may be mandated to do this individually.