Ex-banker’s Unpaid Premium: NAICOMIntervenes, Directs NSIA Insurance To Respond To Petition
The nation’s insurance regulatory agency, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), has intervened in the petition written by a former senior staff of First Bank Plc, Mr. Taiwo Shojobi, over the refusal of NSIA Insurance Limited (formerly ADDIC Insurance) to pay him all premium he paid to the company for an insurance policy in 2008.
While acknowledging the receipt of Mr. Shojobi’s petition, the regulatory agency noted that a copy of the petition, which was receiving the necessary attention, had been forwarded to NSIA Insurance for their response, adding that Mr. Shojobi would be informed of further development in the course of resolving the issues raised therein.
It will be recalled that Mr. Shojobi had stated in his petition to NAICOM that he paid the sum of N330,000 (Three Hundred and Thirty Thousand Naira) to NSIA Insurance being the requested monthly premium over the first year in 2008, but since then, the insurance firm’s agent, who collected the payments on behalf of NSIA, disappeared into thin air and never showed up for further collection of the premium payments thereafter. He further added that the insurance firm initiated the contract by sending their agent to his office to canvass for his support, which he gladly agreed to based on their agent’s promise to come subsequently for the next batch of 12 months cheque for year 2009, but to his dismay, the Insurance firm’s representative/Officer failed to show up for further collections.
In the petition, the ex-banker stressed that all attempts to trace the NSIA’s agent, whom he was dealing with, proved abortive, stressing that between that 2008 and September 2010 when he voluntarily retired from the services of First Bank Plc, he did not receive any communication whatsoever from neither the Insurance firm’s agent nor their officer until 2015 when he demanded for his benefits that he was informed that their agent, who transacted the business with him on their behalf, had notified them that he (Shojobi) refused to continue payment of premium, whereas she had then seized to be an agent or representative of the Insurance firm.
While expressing his disappointment to NAICOM, the ex-banker condemned the NSIA Insurance Limited for relying on article 6 surrender of policy, which he described as a deliberate ploy embodied in the policy to defraud unsuspecting customers who had taken the insurance policy in utmost good faith.
“It sounds funny for an insurance firm to keep silent when the firm has problem reaching the customer who had hitherto paid his premium on regular basis principally because it plans to rely on the so called article 6 to defraud the customer of his hard earned money”, said the ex-banker.
In the petition, Shojobi stressed that the insurance firm deliberately framed up an argument that their agent, who was dealing with him on their behalf, informed them that he refused to continue with the premium payment without due recourse to him for confirmation, thereby exposing the firm’s act of negligence to their clients.
He further noted that since he was no longer in paid employment to enable him continue with the premium payment, he had made several efforts to get all the premium he had paid with the interest, profit and reversionary bonuses paid to him, but to no avail.
While appealing for NAICOM’s urgent intervention, Shojobi had in the petition implored the regulatory agency to wade in by instructing NSIA Insurance Limited to consider and deem the policy paid up and thereafter pay to him the surrender value accrued thereon in full.
The petitioner, who said he wasn’t ruling out taking necessary legal action if he could not get the management of NSIA Insurance Limited to pay him all his entitlements, urged NAICOM to direct NSIA to ensure full payment of the profits, all accruable reversionary bonuses and interest accruable on the policy since 2008 to date.
He urged NAICOM to urgently intervene and ensure NSIA’s prompt settlement of all his requests, pleading that the insurance regulatory agency and all well-meaning Nigerians should help him to prevail on NSIA insurance Limited to pay up all his entitlements in order to ensure his confidence in the operations of insurance business in Nigeria was not further shaken.
