FG Insures 89,000 Civil Servants With N15bn

The federal government has paid about N15 billion premium under the Group Life Insurance scheme to insure over 89,000 workers across the country in the current year 2020.

Although, the federal government had, in the past, struggled to renew Group life insurance of its workers, owing to late passage of budget, findings show that insurance industry had to engage the government agencies and convince them on the need to insure these workers.

With the premium now fully paid, the family of deceased civil servants will be entitled to death benefit claims that will sustain the deceased workers’ families.

In Nigeria, group life cover is a joint regulation of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and the National Pension Commission (PenCom).

Section 9 (3) of the Pension Reform Act 2004 (now PRA 2014) requires every employer, to which the Act applies, to maintain Life Insurance Policy in favour of the employee for a minimum of three times the annual total emolument of the employee. The policy provides cover to the insured against death.

The president, Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), Dr Bola Onigbogi confirmed this development during the 2020 annual general meeting of the National Association of Insurance and Pension Correspondents (NAIPCO) in Lagos, at the weekend.

Onigbogi said: “The 2020 Group Life is off the schedule because full premium has been paid on the account for the current year. There is no lapse in cover at the moment.”

Onigbogi, who was represented by the vice president of the council, Mr Tunde Oguntade, urged the federal government to always engage the services of the registered insurance Brokers in order to mitigate the risk of contact failures.

She expressed displeasure on government’s failure to engage insurance brokers in its insurance arrangement, stating that, the Council will continue to dialogue with the government on the need to always engage the services of the brokers in its insurance arrangement.

“On government contracts, NCRIB is talking to ministers through our liaison committee and leadership that most contract failures was as a result of not involving insurance brokers in those arrangement. With this, all those contracts failure will not be there, because contracts failures are sometimes premeditated and they do not want to listen to us,” she pointed out.

Stating that insurance brokers have been engaging the federal government on roads, bridges and rails under construction, so as to avoid contract failures, she said, the importance of brokers in contract arrangement cannot be over emphasised.

She said, “If they don’t want the contracts to fail, they know what to do. Imagine someone who go to roadside agent to ask for insurance policy. NCRIB was the one who punctured all that and said, it is wrong. We will continue to do our best to engage government and as long as government is willing to do the right thing, NCRIB will be there to support them.”

Similarly, the executive secretary of the council, Mr Fatal Adegbenro, while reacting on the government contacts, said, the Council is in very close contact with government agencies.

“Everybody knows that in every clime, we have fake teachers, fake police, fake lawyers and what have you. You cannot whisk that away in any society, but with the cooperative effort between NAICOM and NCRIB, a lot of thing is being done to minimize it to the barest minimum,” he stressed.

Meanwhile, the director, Centre for Pension Right Advocacy (CPRA), Mr Ivor Takor, said: “The Pension Reforms Act (PRA) 2014 requires every employer of labour, which, in this case, includes the federal government to procure group Life cover for its employees, failure to which such employer must compensate the families of deceased worker.”