Uninsured Assets, Government Risks Adviser Points To The Way Not Taken

The statutory risk adviser to federal government, National Insurance Commission, says non insurance and inappropriate insurance response by government is leading to colossal waste whenever there is a disaster.

The Commissioner For Insurance, Mr. Sunday Thomas, exercising the statutory responsibility of NAICOM to government, assembled insurance desk officers in ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in Kaduna recently and explained that the sustained trend of inadequate and inappropriate insurances need to fade out and insurance embrace established instead. He said the Commission has put in place measures to guide MDAs on procuring adequate and appropriate insurances.

“It is very worrisome to the Commission that most assets and liabilities of government are never adequately and appropriately insured, which further accentuated the need for urgent measures to be put in place by the Commission to ensure that government gets value for money in the purchase of insurance by MDAs. It is the desire of NAICOM to change this narrative for good,” stated Commissioner For Insurance addressing the insurance desk officers at the workshop.

He Inferred that government deprives other areas of the national social contract needed funds for development whenever it rushes funds to intervene in man made and natural disasters which are better suited for the insurance industry to handle.

Thomas explains further: “The essence of insurance of government assets and liabilities is to cushion the impact and reduce the burden that the government would have to bear in likely occurrences of catastrophic events such as natural disasters, fire, accidents, building collapse, injuries or death to third parties, etc, thereby saving the government money which can be channelled towards augmenting the needs of the citizenry, providing infrastructure, and creating employment, among others.”

He said the Commission’s intervention is secured in the extant laws prescribed in Section 7 (d) and (C) of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) Act 1997 which stipulates that the Commission shall ensure adequate protection of strategic government assets and other properties just as the provisions empowers the Commission to act as adviser to the Federal Government on all insurance related matters.

Mr. Thomas said that the purpose of the workshop is to build the capacity insurance officers need to achieve the tasks assigned and have them equipped with the necessary tools to ensure that all MDAs have adequate insurance coverage for all government assets and liabilities to curb wastage occasioned by losses of uninsured assets.

He promised that at the end of the workshop, “it is expected that insurance desk officers will now have the capacity to gauge the insurance protection needs of government assets under their purview and provide their principals with technical advice on the required insurance coverage for government assets and liabilities.”

Declaring the Commission’s commitment to the project the CFI said: “Building the capacity of insurance desk officers, enthroning transparency and accountability to ensure that government gets value for money in the purchase of insurance thus taking us all a step further in contributing effectively to the economic growth and development of Nigeria is an ongoing project of the Commission.”