How to verify if your car insurance is fake in Nigeria

Insurance is mandatory for car owners in Nigeria. This is particularly good as we have a bad attitude to driving, and car we are ignorant about car insurance.

One day, I was riding with my sister in-law in her car. We struck a conversation about driving in Nigeria. She talked me how Nigerians can turn 2 lanes into 4 lanes. The fact that a lot of drivers do not know the rules of driving, and some of them do not have drivers’ licenses, or insurance so you have to drive defensively because if someone hits your car, they resort to begging for mercy.

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Pedestrians and other motorists are wont to join in and beg you to let them go scot-free. I disagreed and told her if someone hits my car, they better have car insurance. Else, they should be ready to pay out of pocket for the repair of my vehicle. She smiled and said “you will understand with time.”

 Although there is a law that mandates all drivers in Nigeria to have car insurance, a lot drivers kept driving uninsured cars because they pay unscrupulous agents to provide them with fake insurance and there was no way of verifying their documents by either the police or injured parties.

This is no longer the case however, as there is a Nigerian Insurance Industry Database Portal (NIID) that let’s you know if your car has genuine insurance, or you can dial *565*11# on your phone and follow the prompt. You also get a text from NIID when you registered your car, showing you have genuine insurance.

This development has created a situation where most Nigerian drivers are driving around insured but not using it. This helps insurance companies to cart away with billions of your money. It is time to get knowledgeable about car insurance policy.

Do you have questions about car insurance or need guidance on how to go about making successful insurance claims? Do you have any question you would like us to answer? Send them to Insurance Info and please include the state where you live (no full names will be used).

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