Some players in the Ghanaian insurance sector are making calls for the National Insurance Commission (NIC) to put together a claims payment database to boost confidence in the industry, educate the public on the huge sums that are paid as claims annually and also check fraudulent claims payment.
They argue the database can be categorized; this they believe will help the sector have history of any person who has ever bought a policy and be able to measure the risk associated with the person and make a decision of how much to charge.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Launch of the digital reward system for its customers, Managing Director of Loyalty Insurance, Ernest Frimpong hailed the NIC for the introduction of the Motor Insurance Database (MID) and urged the NIC to come out with a Claims Payment Database.
“The system of insurance is that we should be able to segregate our insured and we know what risk that they pose to the insurance pool so if you bring a less risk, we should be able to charge you lower than somebody who brings a higher risk.”
He further added that “with the current system being run, because we do not have an industry wide database on claims, we are not able to segregate; so, insurance premium is high for everybody or low for everybody. It shouldn’t be so, we should be able to say that; for 10 years, an individual has not made a claim so your risk is a good risk and therefore we need to reward you. We would be able to do away with the fraudulent claims, where one person will do an insurance here and make a claim here and go to another insurance company and make a claim and would be doing a lot of fraudulent claims.”
With this database, as soon as a claim is filled with an insurance company, you just go there and you see whether that person has made a claim and for how long; and then, you would be able to find out whether it is a fraudulent claim or not. When somebody is also coming to do insurance, you find the person’s claim history and you would be able to charge appropriately” Mr. Frimpong told the media.
About 507,000 motor insurance stickers have been electronically issued since the introduction of the Motor Insurance Database (MID) policy by the NIC at the beginning of 2020.This follows an earlier 272,000 stickers issued electronically in May of this year following the implementation of the to curb fake insurance stickers plying the roads. According to the Head of Supervision at the NIC Seth Eshun, the regulator on a daily basis, pays some GH¢1.6 million in claims for motor insurance in Ghana.
Some Insurance players believe that, if a similar system for claims is set-up for the industry, it would go a long way to deal with fraudsters in the sector.
Touching on the loyalty reward system, Mr Frimpong disclosed, the digital payment system will feature instant digital rewards for insureds and intermediaries anytime they buy a Motor Insurance policy from Loyalty Insurance.
He adds the reward component of the platform seeks to leverage on the company’s promotions in rewarding digital fuel coupons with an option to convert the digital fuel coupon into mobile money or Airtime across various networks.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Eric Mawuena Egbeta
