Management and members of staff of NEM Insurance Plc, on Saturday embarked on a fitness walk to promote healthy living and sensitise the public on the benefits of insurance policies.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workers of the insurance company in their numbers walked from NEM Insurance House, Obanikoro, through Ikorodu Road to Maryland and back to NEM House.
Mr Tope Smart, Group Managing Director, NEM Insurance, said that the fitness walk was geared to promote healthy lifestyle and bonding amongst the staff.
Smart, also the immediate past president, African Insurance Organisation (AIO), said that staff of the insurance firm were also able to create awareness on insurance and its benefits through the various placards they held.
“We have been able to create awareness about insurance as we walk because people kept asking who we are and what we do and in the process of answering them, we are educating them and deepening insurance penetration,” he said.
According to him, workers of the company embark on the walk typically twice a year ; which is usually in March and October.
”We had to stop it in 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak,” he said.
Smart said the underwriting firm had restored the programme and would continue it henceforth as usual.
He said the fitness walk also introduced to the AIO during the 2022 conference in Nairobi, was well received by its members.
The group managing director assured that insurance companies would ensure the continuity of either businesses and safety of insured property by restoring losses that might arise from mishap.
Smart advised Nigerians to buy insurance policies as much as possible for continuity of life and businesses in case of any loss.
“Once you have an insurance policy, it will appear that you have not lost anything when there is a disaster because you are sure of a replacement, except for the emotional trauma of the incident that one may experience.
“My advise is for Nigerians to embrace insurance and buy insurance products to take care of all their assets and restore any financial loss,” he said.
On the current flood ravaging the country, Smart said NEM Insurance had started receiving claims from some of the victims, and presently being verified before payment is made.
He said : “Provided that the client has the right cover, in the sense that maybe someone takes a fire policy for instance and there is an extension of flood, definitely the individual is covered.
“But if there is no flood extension, then the insurance firm may not be able to come to the rescue of the victim.
“This means that, the public needs to be properly guided when taking any insurance policy and envisage the kind of risk they opened to and make sure that those risks are taken care of,” he said.
According to Smart, there will be need for government to support the flood victims, as over 98 per cent of those in the rural areas especially, do not have insurance cover.
Smart said for the corporate bodies who took up insurance policies in such affected places, insurance companies would surely step in to restore their losses.
He assured that Nigerian insurance companies backed by their reinsurance companies had the capacity to bear the loss that might arise from the magnitude of the flood or any other disaster. NAN
