The Federal Government has urged Insurance regulator to leverage it’s technology drive to remedy poor revenue and connect to national database to provide more services.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed said this at the commissioning of NAICOM Portal Friday in Abuja.

The Minister emphasised the need to leverage the platform to generate revenue while also ensuring connection to other national database to provide value-added services.

She said, “dwindling Government revenue profile demands that the Commission must look into ways of increasing its revenue through the use of technology and the Portal in particular. I urge the Commission to ensure the Portal is connected to other government databases like the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) NIN Database, Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) Passport Database, Nigeria Integrated Customs Information system, FRSC’s National Vehicle Identification System, the National Vehicle Registry, State Licensing Databases among others in order to provide value added services to all Insurance Industry stakeholders and enhance revenue generation.

“In addition, the NAICOM Portal must also serve as the central database and sole repository of all Insurance Data connected to government databases in the country” Zainab said.

She called on the Commission to ensure prompt payment of verified claims by underwriters, which will serve as advertisement for the industry. She urged the commission to put in mechanisms to ensure Insurance companies meet their obligations to policyholders.

The Minister further commended the Commission for being in the forefront of adopting technology and for incepting initiatives including Guidelines for Web Aggregators and Regulatory Sandbox, introduction of BIMA Lab Insurtech Accelerator Program.

Earlier, the Commissioner For Insurance, National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, Mr Sunday Thomas stated that the launch of the Portal ensure seamless service provision end-to-end without physical interface.

“Honourable Minister, permit me to state that with the completion of the portal there will be process efficiency and faster processing time as applications and supporting documents are submitted online, applicant’s account is updated with the status of the application as it progresses and there is effective Real-time communication between NAICOM and the applicant.

“The Portal also provides a Platform for interconnectivity by all industry stakeholders to support real-time aggregation of data on policies at the time of underwriting and policy issuance. Each policy will be issued with a unique policy ID that will be associated with the policy for the life time of the policy” Thomas said.

He also said the Portal will be deployed such that the issue of poor penetration will be tackled, ensure accountability and transparency.

“Honourable Minister, it is expected that the challenges of poor insurance penetration, public trust and confidence in insurance, and inadequate real time statistical data of the insurance industry will be resolved through the efficient deployment of the portal. Also the direct interface with the Industry provided by the portal will ensure greater accountability and transparency”, he said.

The Minister on the sideline of the commissioning of the Portal Inaugurated newly appointed members of the Board of the Commission under the chairmanship of Dr. Abubakar Sani.