Daily Independent (Lagos)
David Agba
29 October 2008
Abuja — Minister of State for Air Transportation, Felix Hyat, on Tuesday expressed disappointment that three of the airline operators that had crashes not long ago claiming several lives were yet to compensate the victims.
Hyat said this when he received the Group Managing Director of NICON Insurance Corporation, Catherine Okpareke, on a courtesy visit in Abuja.
It would be recalled that the three airlines at different times during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo recorded crashes that killed several Nigerians, including the late Sultan of Sokoto, Mohammed Macido.
The minister stated that the government was doing everything possible to see that families of the victims were given their compensation as stipulated by law.
To this end, the minister said the insurance industry needs more support to enable it carry out its functions.
Hyat stressed that Nigerians suffer non-payment of insurance compensation because the sector has over the years not been taken seriously, assuring that there was no plan to run insurance companies down.
He, therefore, pledged the ministry's support for insurance sector, while calling for better service delivery.
Earlier, Okpareke, who is the immediate past president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), had solicited the support of the ministry, noting that NICON Insurance is back and is ready to do business.
"What we are saying is that NICON is back and all the issues with the Federal Government has been resolved and we have a new revitalised, energised and ready to go Nicon.
"Obviously we all know that NICON is the biggest insurance company in Nigeria with over N50 billion in assets and we have offices in over 60 centres all over the country.
"With the recent capitalisation exercise where we put N25 billion in both NICON Insurance and Nigerian Re, we are the most capitalised insurance outfit, we have the biggest shareholders fund in the insurance industry in Nigeria, so we are inviting the insuring public to have confidence to come back and do business with us in NICON.
"Specifically we are going to collaborate in the areas of group life, the compulsory building insurance for all government properties and of course the aviation sector," she said.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Daily Independent. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
