The Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) says insurance companies in the country have the capacity to handle liabilities that arise as a result of risk involved in any sector of the economy.
The Director General, NIA , Mrs Yetunde Ilori said this on Monday, at a Stakeholders Conference organised by the Lagos State Safety Commission and the association to domesticate compulsory insurance on properties and public buildings in Lagos.
Ilori spoke in reaction to a claim by the Chairman, Air Peace, Mr Allen Onyema, that all the insurance companies in Nigeria put together cannot insure even one aircraft.
Onyema had said this at a stakeholders’ meeting with the Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Mr Ahmed Wase, last week whilst listing the challenges faced by airline operators in Nigeria.
He had stated that due to the inability of Nigerian insurers to provide full cover for their aircraft, airline operators have to go abroad to insure, which is highly expensive.
Ilori said that anyone with such idea or belief that the Nigerian insurance firms are not viable enough to bear any form of risk does not understand how insurance works.
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She explained that insurance is a global business and insurance companies take risks to the extent of their capacities.
The NIA director general said that where the underwriters can no longer absorb the risk, they transfer to the Re-insurer.
“The re-insurers also take theirs to the extent of their capacity, as insurance is a global business.
” You will not be surprised that if you are insuring your terminal or banks in Nigeria, where the capacity in Nigeria is exhausted, it is also shared under what is Treaty Reinsurance, ” she said.
According to her, insurance companies are not trading with capital and it is not how big they are that determines the extent of the risk they can bear.
(NAN)
