Its National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi, said the rationale behind the hike “is difficult to fathom” in a statement made available to journalists in Ibadan, Oyo State.

According to the directive issued by NAICOM last Thursday, private car owners, who have been paying N5,000 premium per vehicle for N1 million Third Party Property Damage (TPPD) limit are now to pay N15,000 for N3 million TPPD, while staff bus owners are to part with N20,000 premium per vehicle for N3 million TPPD. The increase is to affect other brands of vehicle that are to take covers.

The Commission went ahead to warn insurance firms that failure to implement the order “shall attract appropriate regulatory sanction.”

Continuing, the Afenifere spokesman observed: “Some agencies of this government seem to derive pleasure in inflicting pains on the people of Nigeria. The Federal Ministries of Education and Labour as well as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (Limited) etc. can be mentioned here.

The National Insurance Commission now came up with an unprecedented hike of over 200 per cent in the amount of money a person has to pay to get the minimum insurance cover. This was done at a time when another government agency, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) described 63 per cent of Nigerians (i.e. 133 million) as suffering multi-dimensional poverty, just as unemployment is at an all-time high. With cost of living so high, with personal income dwindling so much and with uncertainty so pervasive, why would it be now that NAICOM would raise the cost of insurance premium?”

NBS, in the 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) Report it launched last November in Abuja, had revealed that two out of three Nigerians are poor and experiencing about one quarter of all possible deprivations in terms of health, education, living standards, work and shocks.

Ajayi said part of mandates of NAICOM was to protect policy holders, noting: “But legion are Nigerians, who are lamenting over the horrible experiences they are having in the hands of most of the insurance companies in the country.

“Many could not get their claims despite several efforts. Many died in the process, while many abandoned the claims because they could not get it years after. Thus, NAICOM, which is prepared to ‘sanction’ insurance companies that fail to enforce the new tariff has not been known to sanction these companies when they fail to meet their obligations to their clients, who make claims on them – thus raising the question as to whose interest exactly is NAICOM out to protect?”

He added that the regulator ought to concern itself first with whether insurance companies are fulfilling their own side of the contract entered into with clients before arbitrarily jerking up the fee for covers.