NIA Plans Central Data Base to Enhance Vehicle Insurance

The fake vehicle insurance syndicate which has held the industry captive over the years may finally be mobbed soon, going by feelers emerging from the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), the umbrella body of all registered insurance companies. Indications that the old vehicle insurance sticker which has been in place for ages appear set for the dustbin emerged recently when Olusola Oladipo-Ajayi, the association’s chairman, stated that arrangement has been perfected to replace the moribund Vehicle Insurance Sticker (VISER) with a central data system. Over the years, VISER, which was introduced in 2004 as a way of creating a uniform third party motor insurance policy, has been abused as it was difficult for even the law enforcement officers to distinguish between fake and original vehicle insurance sticker. According to the NIA chairman, the industry cannot afford to remain in the old school in the face of emerging technology, adding that it will soon set up a central data base for motor insurance which will stand the test of time and which will also assist the Police to do their work more effectively. According to him, “VISER is moribund and even the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) is not interested in resuscitating it or controlling the central information system being planned by NIA,’ adding that the regulator’s ‘interest is for NIA to find a way it can use technology to beat the parallel market because of the danger posed by fake insurance documents.”  He lauded the emerging central data system which he said does not create a barrier in any part of the country.  Oladipo-Ajayi stressed that with the central data base, documents can be verified no matter the location of the operators whether in Lagos, Port Harcourt or Maiduguri. He added that in doing this, the association was using the services of IT experts and was also consulting with the law enforcement agents, for a sustainable service-delivery. The chairman stated that the original idea of VISER was to authenticate third party motor insurance certificate to curtail the many fake certificates which abound, regretting however that it did not achieve its objective as there were many allegations of fake VISER stickers in the market.