Matthew Otoijagha
As children and wards go back to school, the Association of Registered Insurance Agents of Nigeria (ARIAN) has called on parents to leverage insurance products to secure their children academic future.
The President of the association, Ademola Fagbayi, stated this during an awareness campaign tagged: ‘Project S3, ARIAN Insurance Awareness Walk 2019’ organized by the body yesterday in Lagos. During the campaign, members of the association who converged at Presbyterian Church, Yaba Lagos, moved round the various streets in the neighborhood educating the public on benefits of insurance and ended the procession at Oyingbo Lagos.
Fagbayi said the yearly event is organized as part of efforts to create insurance awareness in the country, stressing that insurance agents are closer to the grassroots, hence, every year, they organize the event so that people can know and understand the benefits of insurance.
“This year, we focused the awareness on life assurance policy. Specifically, children education plan. We decided to focus on this because this is the season children are going back to school and education is really key to every human endeavor. We want to educate people on how they can leverage insurance to plan the future of their children.
“We appreciate the fact that education is the best legacy any parent can give to children, however, education is becoming very expensive, because most of our kids are in private schools and meeting their academic demands often times may be challenging. This is where insurance becomes necessary,” he said.
According to him, many insurance companies participated in the campaign, with each possessing various products approved by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) which were used to educate the public on how they can use insurance to plan the future of their children, especially as it concerns payments of school fees or when parents are no longer available either as a result of death or disability.
He posited that when the unforeseen happens, insurance can provide lump sum which could be used to keep the children in school. He said over 5,000 fliers were given to the public during the walk, adding that the materials would go a long way in deepening insurance awareness, both in the short medium and long term.
Speaking on the benefits of insurance, he said: ” Though the benefits of insurance is very wide, you know insurance naturally is to plan against eventualities, look at the area of general insurance now we have a lot of people who got involved in accidents, if they do not have insurance, they have to look for money to actually treat themselves and fix their vehicles.
‘‘And if their vehicles are stolen or got spoilt one way or the other, if they do not have insurance, they have to start all over again. But, those with insurance, need not bother as they will be indemnified, that means, they would to be restored to the position they were before the occurrence of the loss,” he added.
Fagbayi maintained that insurance companies over the years have being pay genuine claims. According to him since the beginning of this year insurers have paid billion of Naira as claims. “Most of the people that tell you those insurance firms are not paying claims, do not have insurance.
‘‘The issue of failure to pay claims are misconception of the past, I want to assure you that Leadway Assurance Limited, Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc. and so many other key players from January to this point have being paying several billions of insurance claims. But due to the insecurity in the country, nobody would come up publicly to say he or she has collected claims,” he posited.
He commended NAICOM for its role in ensuring companies honour their claims responsibilities, stressing that the commission does not joke with the issue of claims as it can lead to the cancellation of an insurance company’s operating licence. He urged people with unsettled claims to approach NAICOM, to enable them get their claims paid, provided the claims are genuine.