NAICOM Backs Lagos Building Insurance Scheme, Describe Insurance as Social Protection

Ebere Nwoji

The Commissioner for Insurance and Chief Executive Officer of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Mr Olusegun Ayo Omosehin, has urged Nigerians to see insurance as instrument of social protection and economic recovery rather than  merely a financial product. 

Omosehin who stated this in his key note address at the  official launch of the Lagos State Building Insurance Scheme held in Lagos recently  said, “In reality, insurance is an instrument of social protection and economic recovery. When a building collapses, insurance helps families recover. When fire destroys commercial premises, insurance enables businesses to restart operations. When floods damage homes and public facilities, insurance provides financial support that reduces suffering and accelerates recovery.Without insurance, disasters push individuals, businesses, and governments into severe financial distress and trigger economic waste.”

According to him with  insurance, shocks become manageable and recovery becomes possible. 

He said that  was why compulsory building insurance was  not simply a regulatory requirement but a public safety intervention.

He said  the Lagos State Building Insurance Scheme therefore advanced a broader national objective of ensuring that no Nigerian is left completely vulnerable when disaster strikes.

He said with the launch of the scheme, public buildings and buildings under construction above a prescribed height must carry insurance cover that protects not only the owner, but the occupier, the visitor and the passer by. 

He said the purpose of the law was not to burden the citizen but  to ensure that where negligence, fire, flood or collapse caused loss, there is a fund from which that citizen could  be made whole.

He said what Lagos State had done was  to take this national law and give it practical, enforceable life at the level where buildings actually stood. 

He described this as  precisely the partnership the Act envisaged between the federal regulator and the state governments,adding that Nigeria did not suffer from a shortage of laws. 

“Our challenge, honestly stated, has always been enforcement. We have carried compulsory insurance provisions on our books for years while compliance remained weak, awareness remained low, and forged certificates circulated freely.What distinguishes the Lagos initiative is that it confronts the enforcement gap directly,” he explained.