Mandilas Fire: Brokers raise concern over Nigerian’s poor attitude to insurance

The Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers has commiserated with victims of the Mandilas fire incident in Lagos and rued the poor attitude of the public to insurance.

Speaking when he led a delegation of the Council to the scene of the fire incident, Babatunde Oguntade, president of the Council, lamented that the fire incident had further led to hardship in the country because the fire victims were Nigerians.

Oguntade noted that the magnitude of the losses could have been mitigated if the victims adequately insured their assets and utilized the services of insurance brokers, 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 the government at all levels needed to pay more attention to the enforcement of existing laws backing some compulsory insurance to help the government and the people protect their human and material assets, as well as grow the insurance industry.

The NCRIB president noted that “it remains inexpedient for government to seek to provide palliatives for victims of calamities continually. Instead, they could assist them in paying insurance premiums to enable them to make claims consistent with the volume of their losses when they occur.”

He seized the opportunity to underscore the roles of insurance brokers in educating insurance clients (existing and potential) about the benefits of insurance while also acting as their dependable allies in the event of claims payment.