By Theresa Igata

The House of Representatives says it is currently probing 10 government agencies and 10 insurers over N200bn insurance fraud in the country.

This was disclosed by the Chairman, House Adhoc committee on Insurance, Adekunle Akinlade. Akinlade who was speaking on a Channels TV programme said that since a committee was setup to investigate the monumental fraud some companies have been invited for questioning on what they’ve been doing and what they’ve done so far.

“Honestly when we started the probe on some government agencies and some insurance companies, we were thinking it’s a N20 or N5bn funds that has been misappropriated over the last 3 years but I must tell you that in the last 3 weeks we saw that this is over N200bn illegally taken by persons using their office which shouldn’t be and they should not have been patronised by the government in any way. It is like a conduit pipe where billions is being wasted annually on insurance.

“Nobody has ever looked at the insurance sector as one that any of such can come out of. But with the wisdom of the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, the 8th assembly decided that the insurance sector is big enough to have a committee of its own, so that we can look at the sector which is why you’re having this issue on the front burner”, he said..

He added that the committee approached NAICOM and they’ve been very supportive by providing us with a list of insurance companies in the country. “We discovered over invoicing, doing business with unlicensed brokers and agents as one of the ways through which these misappropriations were carried out as the case may be. We also have to know what an insurance company has to have before they can carry out transactions of such magnitude”.

Akinlade added however that there’s a challenge with the government not NAICOM. “If you look at the selection process on how these companies are selected, it’s absurd. The infractions that this committee has established is mind blowing. NAICOM is handicapped in this regard”, he said.

He said that the committee is looking into the funds that were collected, how they were disbursed and who collected what. These information Akinlade added, will give us the power to prosecute. “We’re looking at over a hundred MDAs and what we’ve done now is to pick 10 insurance companies every week. Some insurance companies received monies for premium that they don’t even know what it is for and they don’t even know how much the insurance cover is worth.”

He however said that the committee has written to the EFCC and all other government agencies empowered by law. “Ours is to establish the infractions and then action will be taken appropriately”. Insurance he added, “cuts across all government agencies and it’s bigger than you think. As we speak, the Nigerian Customs, CBN and the printing and mining and all other agencies are yet to submit their submissions. The committee has written to the EFCC and all other government agencies empowered by law. Ours is to establish the infractions and then action will be taken appropriately”.

Emphasising the stand of the committee Akinlade said that with the monumental fraud, any company or individual indicted will be dealt with according, even as the government will not do business with any culpable insurance company in the next five years. This will give room for genuine companies who are ready to do business, he said