Expert Urges Nigerians To Imbibe Insurance Culture

Head of Technical Division of Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc, Mr Tajudeen Rufai, urged Nigerians to imbibe insurance culture.

Rufai said in a statement last Thursday in Lagos said the advice was necessary due to increasing cases of road accident, building collapse, fire outbreak and the recent flooding across the country.

According to him, Nigerians need to consciously educate themselves on the benefits they are bound to derive in taking up insurance policies.

“There are various insurance products that the insuring public can take in protecting their lives and properties.

“However, the most important thing is for them to willingly open their minds in accepting insurance as a very important aspect of their lives.

“This is coming on the heels of the various incessant cases of road accidents across the country, collapse of buildings, especially those under construction and fire outbreak.

“And also recently, the ravaging floods in some parts of the country destroyed properties worth million of Naira,” he said.

Rufai said that Nigerians had waited too long in willingly accepting and recognising that without insurance they would start from the scratch in case of the unexpected.

He said insurance gave one the promise of a safe and comfortable future, adding that the earlier the mind was disabused of the old notion that insurance was not working, the better.

Mrs Ugochi Odemelam, the firm’s Head of Marketing and Relationship Management, attributed the low patronage of insurance to lack of basic insurance knowledge by the people.

Odemelam said that those with bad experience due to their inability to study instructions about their insurance contracts or policies were capable of discouraging prospective customers.

She said the recent floods experienced in Lagos was an eye-opener to what insurance could do to take care of in terms of compensation.

According to her, the cheery news for customers, who took the fire policy and had their properties damaged in the flood, is that they will be duly compensated.

“This is because flood is a special peril covered under the fire policy,” she said.