Road Accidents: Insurance Rescues Motorists From Physical Combat With New Deal

Over time, vehicle owners in Nigeria have missed out completely from a major reward that rightly belongs to them.

Out of sheer ignorance, motorists have resorted to fighting or other self-help engagement to sort out road crashes involving their vehicles.

While some take to shouting, fighting and inviting the police, the smart and civilised ones simply get hold of their insurance documents to settle scores and earn so much benefit at the end of the day.

Simply put, the insurance policy in one’s possession provided it is genuine, covers a lot of things and provides so much benefits, if only the policyholder is patient enough to know the value.

Today, the Third Party policy, which in the past was just to fix the victim’s vehicle in the event of an accident, has gone beyond that to include paying hospital bills for severe injuries and others, depending on the insurance company.

Essentially, smart motorists no longer have reason to resort to physical clashes whenever they are involved in an accident.

Apart from the fact that the Third Party policy which was N5,000 in the past, covered repairs and other loss recovery, the insurance industry regulator, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), however, deemed it necessary for insured motorists to enjoy more benefits by claiming as much as N3 million to cover costs of damage.

This decision, according to industry sources, was arrived at basically due to increase in cost of almost everything in the market today, exchange rate and, ultimately, to ensure an amicable and quick resolution of cases as well as faster repairs of the vehicle(s).

Thus, to ensure seriousness and commitment on the part of motorists, the industry also saw the need to increase the premium by 200 per cent from N5,000 to N15,000.

In Nigeria of today, where prices of items, especially imported goods, experience galloping inflation, the best bet for anyone is to outsource some risks where possible. This is where insurance has become handy for everybody.

Insurance is an arrangement by which a company or the state undertakes to provide a guarantee of compensation for specified loss, damage, illness, or death in return for payment of a specified premium.

The objective of Third Party Motor Insurance amongst others is to provide coverage for the Insured’s liability for death/injury to Third Party and loss or damage to the third-party property in the event of accidents.

The Federal Government, through the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) in December 2022 reviewed the premium rate and the corresponding compensations for Third Party motor insurance in Nigeria to become effective January 1, 2023.

With the new development, private vehicles that were paying N5,000 premium for N1 million Third Party Property Damage (TPPD) limit, are now to pay N15,000 premium for N3 million TPPD, while owner good vehicles are to pay N20, 000 premium for N5 million claims limit, and staff busses are to pay N20,000 premium for N3 million claims limit.

For commercial trucks and general cartage, they are to pay N100,000 premium for N5 million TPPD limit; Tricycles N5,000 for N2 million TPPD limit, and Motor Cycles N3,000 for N1 million TPPD limit.

For motorists to enjoy the benefit of their policy, the best option is for them to take their time to ensure their policies are genuine by buying their policies from registered insurance brokers or registered insurance companies.

There are about 500 registered insurance brokers and over 60 registered insurance companies in Nigeria where motorists can buy their Third Party Insurance Policy from.

Possessing a genuine Third Party Insurance Policy gives the policyholder peace of mind and also guaranteed him/her for adequate compensation in the event of any eventualities.

In Nigeria, the law demands that every motorist plying the Nigerian roads should have a Third Party Motor Insurance which is one of the compulsory insurance policies in Nigeria. This is the legal minimum level of motor insurance cover any motor vehicle owner plying the Nigerian road is required to have.

Beyond the fact that Third Party Motor Insurance is compulsory by law, the benefits of the policy make it a must-have for every Nigerian motorist.

The reason most people resorted to physical combat on the road when there is an accident is when the parties involved in the accident have no insurance or the insurance certificate they have is fake.

In order to avoid this ugly situation, motorists should ensure that their policy documents are genuine and this can be done through various ways put in place by the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA).

Some of the ways Insurance Policyholders can authenticate the status of their insurance policy documents is through the NIA Database known as ASKNIID (www.askniid.org) or USSD Code *565*11#.

The policyholders whose vehicle insurance details had been uploaded on the NIID can check their motor insurance policy status by visiting www.askniid.org or by sending Short Messaging Service (SMS) to the USSD code *565*11# on any mobile phone with or without internet access.

Using this platform is very easy and you can authenticate your policy in a few short steps: From any web enabled device, visit http://www.askniid.org.  Your browser should take you to a page on NIID portal where you can verify your insurance policy.

On the askniid.org portal home page, look in the header or body of the page for the “Check Policy” and click on it. You would be asked if you want to check for a vehicle policy or a marine policy. Select the desired policy you want to check.

If it is a vehicle policy, you can then either enter your car insurance policy number or your car registration number and then click ‘search’ to see if you have an authentic policy. If your policy document is not captured in the Nigerian Insurance Industry Data base (NIID), then that policy document you have as motor third party insurance certificate is fake and worth nothing.

If the resultant message says, “Your Policy is not found!!!” or “Not available on NIID database,” then know that what you are parading as insurance is fake. But if it’s there, it tells you immediately the name in which your vehicle is registered; the make and model of the vehicle; the colour of the vehicle; name of the insurance company and date of expiration of the policy.

To ensure the protection of policyholders, Section 49 (1) (b) of NAICOM Act, 1997 and Section 101 of Insurance Act 2003 empowers the Commission to issue Guidelines to Insurance Institutions. The Commission has made numerous rules and regulations concerning the protection of policyholders to ensure that genuine claims are settled timely, therefore policyholders do not need to fight on the road when an accident occur but report the situation to their insurance brokers or insurance companies for action.