Between Insurance and Our Vandalised National Assets

 During the weeks of horror for many Nigerians, precious lives have been lost and some of our precious national assets have been destroyed and vandalized.

From an insurance perspective, considerations will lean towards possible life insurance policies of lives lost and the huge impact on families left behind, unprepared and exposed. An absolutely priceless situation.

On the contrary and as expected, the estimated values at which the national assets concerned - airports, railways and coaches and stadium - will be repaired have been announced by the respective ministries.

The question that comes to mind is: were these national assets not insured?

Let's try to answer these questions and understand the crucial role of insurance in the circumstances we have experienced.

Can domestic assets be insured?

Many people have asked this question, mainly due to the lack of understanding of how insurance works, just looking at the multi-billion values ​​of these assets versus the tens of billions that insurers have as their capital base.

Insurance as a pooling system means that the capacity of all together anchored on the cumulative size of reinsurance allows insurers to underwrite all risks with insurable interest.

The arguments for and against insuring national assets have been based on the ability of insurers to react when something goes wrong, as we have now, versus the ability of government to do so, with minimum delay .

Although national assets can indeed be insured, the process will need to be coordinated by the federal government's adviser on all insurance matters, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), which will ensure that the best insurers with an excellent claims history is designated to provide national wealth coverage.

If these national assets were insured...

The payment of the full premium is the consideration that an insurance contract is valid and if the unforeseen occurs, the insurers will be obliged to respond positively.

So, if these affected national assets – airport, rail and coach and stadium, were insured, insurers would have to be part of the first responder team at the scenes of horrific events, primarily to assess the extent of the damage. and consider anticipating the claims that will be filed.

Adjusters would be appointed immediately to join the departments' respective teams to ensure that repair work begins without delay.

Depending on the terms of the insurance policies, insurers may pay deposits to facilitate the start of repairs.

So far, what we have seen and heard from ministry officials does not indicate that these national assets were insured. Or have they all forgotten that these assets were insured and that insurers had to be called upon to react?.

 If these national assets were not insured…

This would probably be because the bounty had not been paid as at the time of the destructive attacks and vandalism. The designated insurers would naturally refuse any discussion so as not to be caught in the act of violating the “No Premium, No Cover” law.

Under these circumstances, the federal government should provide funds outside of budgetary appropriations to repair these national assets. The implication of trying to do this within budget means that other aspects of the budget would be on hold.

Planning with insurance and paying the premium when due works like magic when the unexpected happens, but not having insurance coverage as it seems in these cases would only portend more work for operators insurance and regulators.

Necessary: ​​insurance from insurers

It is becoming fashionable that when accidents or incidents like these occur, the public waits to know whether or not there are insurance covers.

Insurers should be prepared to seize these moments to empathize with the families affected, which is important, and then announce that these national assets were insured and that the necessary steps would be taken to ensure their safety again. Or if they were uninsured, the world will have to hear from insurers and even NAICOM with encouragement to the respective ministries to avoid this in the future.

It would also be an opportunity to inform travelers about Individual Accident Insurance and Individual Life Insurance policies.

If there are victims who were employees of organizations that had more than 3 employees and had (or did not have) a group life insurance policy for their employees, their dependents and relatives will be enlightened on the procedure to be followed to receive the compensation due in accordance with the applicable laws. . So often it happened without any smell.

Ostensibly, insurers will have to work harder to communicate the value of insurance, even during the time of family mourning, while reminding governments that insuring national assets helps ensure that budgetary provisions are not affected.

Insurance works and the insurance industry in Nigeria is ready to respond positively when insurance contracts are valid.

Testing the capacity of insurers always starts with claims response, so these are certainly missed opportunities for insurers to prove their financial strength.

Will there be a next time? Time will tell us.