Third-party accident victims to receive help under new insurance law

The National Insurance Commission (NIC) has said third-party accident victims would receive protection under a new Act that was passed this year.

The new Insurance Act, 2020, replaces the Insurance Act of 2006 and ensures the industry is regulated in accordance with the international framework and acceptable supervisory standards, according to the NIC.

According to the Deputy Commissioner at NIC, Michael Andoh, most times, third party accident victims did not receive any form of support in the case of injury, loss of properties, and at times, death.

Nonetheless, he said, there have been provisions to curtail such a situation.

Mr Andoh said this at the launch of the Allianz Farewell Plus plan in Accra on Tuesday, June 15.

He explained that “Often, there’s no protection for such third parties, and they cry to the government until their voice run out and nothing is done because resources are limited.”

He however stated that “There are mechanisms in the Act that protect all innocent third parties so that when anything happens and due to the actions and inactions of somebody there would be adequately catered for.”

The Deputy Commissioner urged insurance companies to stay true to the policies they sell to their clients in order not to contain the expectations of the public, especially when it is time to make claims.

Although research by the National Insurance Commission has shown that the level of confidence of Ghanaians in insurance provision by companies has increased, more education was required in the sector.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Allianz Insurance, Gideon Ataraire, therefore said, with the establishment of the public education fund in the new Act, companies ought to intensify public education on insurance.

“We need to do a lot more on education, and we will not leave it to the regulator to do it alone. So as individual insurance companies we also need to come up with our own way of educating the people on [the] radio, social media, and face-to-face,” he said.

“We must use the kind of educational structure we have, for instance in the markets, we can use the market leaders, as well as the use of local radio stations and leverage on all these to play our part in public education,” Mr Ataraire added.

He noted that such public education effort would create awareness and increase insurance penetration in the country.

The complementary work of insurance companies in educating the public, he said, would augment that of regulators, which would benefit the companies in the long term.

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The Allianz farewell plus plan

The policy has been designed to support the policyholder or dependents with a lump sum (sum assured) to enable them to cater for funeral expenses arising from the death of their covered loved ones.

It provides a maximum ceiling of sum assured pegged at GH¢80,000.

Policyholders get 10% of the total premium contributed on the 3rd year as “No claims cash back” after 36 months of the policy running without any claims paid.

In addition, the policyholder would continue to enjoy this benefit every year after no claims until waiver of premium kicks in when the policyholder attains 60 years.