Daily Independent (Lagos)
Sola Alabadan
6 October 2008
The one stop shop for motor vehicle insurance claims codenamed OSCAR has thrown its weight behind ongoing efforts by stakeholders to review the Third Party Motor Vehicle Insurance Act with a view to ensuring that all government vehicles are adequately insured in line with the practice in other parts of the world.
Chairman of the organisation, Mr. Ad'Obe Obe, who confirmed this to journalists in Lagos, pledged the organisation's support for ongoing effort to bring the third part motor insurance act in tune with current realities in the economy.
A private member bill is to be sponsored at the National Assembly to this effect. The organisation also confirmed that the level of compliance with respect to the compulsory motor vehicles third party insurance in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja has risen from 7 percent during the month of May to 75 percent in September this year. He attributed the improvement in the level of third party insurance compliance to the establishment of four government desks handling documentation of information required by either insurance companies or the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) before a claim is settled in the FCT. Answering questions on what the organisation is doing to ensure that government vehicles are adequately insured, he recalled that there was a directive from the Presidency to the effect that all government ministries, agencies and parastatals must insure their vehicles but could not confirm the level of compliance with this directives by the affected organisations. "I know that there is a government directive that all government vehicles must be insured but whether they have done so, I am not very sure," Obe said. _On what the organisation is doing to ensure that this directive is complied with, the OSCAR boss advised government agencies to comply with this directive, adding that this would form part of the report it would present to the President at the end of the OSCAR pilot project in Abuja.
"The report on the project would be made to the President and we will include this in our report. There is also a Third Party Motor Insurance private member bill that would soon be presented to the National Assembly and we will throw our weight behind it," Obe assured. Meanwhile, Obe confirmed that the level of compliance with regard to motor vehicle insurance in the FCT has risen by as much as 61 percent in the last five months. He stated that a field research conducted by the organisation before the establishment of four OSCAR outlets across the FCT in the month of May this year showed that about 91 percent of motorists in Abuja are driving without genuine insurance cover. According to him, 73 percent of the lot go about driving with fake insurance certificates, 18 percent have nothing to show with regard to insurance, while only 9 percent of motorists in the FCT have genuine insurance cover. He added that within the first three months of the implementation of the OSCAR pilot project in Abuja, the level of compliance was improved from 91 percent to 51 percent and further improved in the last six weeks by an additional 24 percent. Obe further noted that the project has resulted to a quantum leap in motor third party premium income which growth soars above 83 percent by the end of a three months long campaign which ended in June 2008._OSCAR is an outfit that handles SERVICOM's Road Safety Project in conjunction with the Presidential Committee charged with ensuring that road accident victims have fair and prompt compensation while SERVICOM is a Federal Government initiative which ensures that all government ministries, departments and agencies deliver quality service to Nigerians. The project is designed to assist motor accident victims in securing compensation fairly and promptly, ensure that incidents of uninsured driving in Nigeria are reduced as much as possible so that all vehicles plying Nigerian roads have at least third party cover and to ensure that the insurance industry which is supposed to pay the price of motor accidents take active part in ensuring that Nigerian roads are reasonably safe. The pilot project of the scheme took off in Abuja last May with four desks across the FCT including the Police Desk which ensures that police reports are provided in case of accident at the no cost to the victim and the Health Desk that ensures that medical reports or death certificates are issued within 24 hours after an accident by government hospitals in any part of the FCT. The NAICOM Desk represents the insurance industry's regulator and ensures that insurance companies pay claims and the Legal Desk ensures that indigent Nigerians get legal assistance or help in negotiating their claims when such cases go to court.
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