The National Insurance Commission has been urged to rescind its order about the rise in third-party motor insurance premiums in Nigeria by the Insurance Consumers Association of Nigeria.
According to The News Agency of Nigeria, NAICOM has issued a policy guideline on the 200 percent increase in third party automobile insurance premiums in Nigeria.
The Insurance Consumers Association of Nigeria (INSCAN) demanded that the directive be reversed because it constituted a willful violation of the fundamental concept of absolute good faith and other moral regulatory norms that govern the profession of insurance.
The group said NAICOM misunderstood the full ramifications of its decision, claiming that the recipients were insurance customers who gave the insurance industry as a whole the collected income.
It claimed that NAICOM’s dependence on using the premiums paid in other areas of the world as a benchmark for the burden of premium increases on Nigerians amounted to open-air robbery of customers.
The INSCAN observed that the public had been given adequate opportunity to provide feedback but claimed that the over 20 million consumers of motor insurance in Nigeria needed more than a week’s notice before compliance, calling the time frame a serious disrespect to the people of Nigeria.
The association claimed to have reviewed more than 500 public comments made by Nigerians regarding the directive, noting that the Nigeria Insurance Industry has gradually gained a reputation.
In Nigeria, where the excellent customers who didn’t file claims are never rewarded, the INSCAN bemoaned the hike without taking into account the feelings of the consumers.
According to the group, if the offensive instruction is not changed, NAICOM would be known as the Nigerian regulator with the highest level of impunity and insensitivity.
It claimed that the NAICOM policy directive was not subject to ethical business practices, generally accepted insurance standards, open rules focused on the needs of customers, or humanitarian consideration of the economic circumstances of the majority of Nigerians.
The group claimed that consumers were further persuaded that the directive’s motivations were selfish, haughty, and harmful to their interests.
INSCAN, a subsidiary of Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumers Protection Commission, commenced in 2010.
It was founded, among other things, to advocate for Nigerians who had been wronged in insurance cases and to encourage the country to embrace insurance arrangements.