Dana Crash: Institute Urges Prompt Payment Of Premium

President of Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), Dr. Wole Adetimehin, on Tuesday advised policy holders to pay their premium promptly.

Adetimehin gave the advice in an interview in Lagos while commenting on the Dana plane crash at Iju-Ishaga area of Lagos on June 3, 2012.

”Dana plane crash is a colossal loss to the insurance industry.

”It opens another avenue for the institute to emphasis the need for the insuring public to pay insurance premium once it is due.

“When the policy holder pays premium, abides by the terms, conditions and clauses in the insurance contract, the underwriters must pay claims without controversy, once the risk occurs,” he said.

According to him, there are normal terms, conditions and clauses that form part of a policy document in an insurance contract which the policy holder must adhere to.

He said that payment of premium was to ensure that insurance companies paid claims whenever the risk occurred.

Adetimehin said that in the case of Dana air disaster, independent loss adjuster would be invited to work with the local ones.

He said that the loss adjusters would examine the root causes of the crash and if in the process they found any breach in the insurance contract, it would nullify the claim.

Adetimehin said that this would, however, not affect the interest of the third party, the passengers, the houses and people affected by the crash.

He said that in the case of a breach, the industry might come up with “ex-gratia”, that is payment made out of “share grace”.

According to him, insurance companies abroad do not have provision for “ex-gratia” because they have high level of insurance compliance.