Fire, road accidents lick insurance reserves

The current rising fire outbreaks and road accident cases in the country is not only killing hundreds, miaming thousands and destroying properties running into m millions, they are eating deep into the reserves of insurance companies too. Maxwell Adombila Akalaare reports


INSURANCE companies nation-wide are tightening up their respective operations to meet the increasing number of motor and fire related claims that continue to flood their respective offices.
The number of road accident cases and fire outbreaks recorded in the country throughout 2010 and that of the first quarter of this year alone can attest to this fact.
“We insurance companies, are of course overwhelmed by the rising fire and motor related claims that we have to deal with due to the rise in accident and fire outbreak cases,” Head of Sales and Marketing at the State Insuarance Company (SIC), Mr Winfred Kwasi Dodzih told the Graphic Business in an interview.
Though his outfit would not readily provide figures on the rising claims sort for by the insured fire and road accident victims, Mr Dozih said they were “eating deep into the reserves of insurance companies nation-wide.
“Upon the high claims that we are paying, SIC is still delighted,” he said.
Mr Dodzih observed that despite the various provisions being made by the insurance companies towards claim payments on event of need, the present incidence were overwhelming to the sector.
According to Mr Dodzih, SIC, the market leader of the nation’s insurance sector would have wished to mobilise more funds through premiums to support the governments development agenda “but paying for these rising claims means the company’s funds are been used up.”
He further noted that though insurance companies and SIC for that matter where of the view that fire and motor related cases are risks that needed to be insured against, the rampant fire and motor accident cases where wiping away the sector’s premiums “due to the heavy claims being paid.”
Road accident cases have been mounting throughout 2009 to 2010. The trend continued in the first four months of this year, leading to 5,340 road accidents been recorded out of which 740 people died while 4,950 people sustained various degrees of injuries.
Road accidents are currently estimated to be causing the nation about 1.7 per cent of the country’s 2010 Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the monetary value of all goods and services produced within the country.
The situation is not different with regards to fire outbreaks, both within corporate institutions and individual residential areas.
A number of corporate and residential houses have been raised down in recent times cause these victims to fall on their insurance companies for help.
“The claim figures for both fire and motor cases has risen of late,” the Head of Sales and Marketing at SIC noted adding that SIC’s figures on the fire and road accident claims was readily not available to support such an  assertion.
The National Insurance Commission (NIC), which tracks information relating to operations in individual insurance companies in the country equally could equally not provide the said data.
In the case of motor accident cases, Mr Dodzih said third party  claims, claims paid to fee paying passengers for destructions done to their properties or lives while in an insured vehicle had risen significant, a situation he said was resulting from thehuge amounts paid as claims to the little premiums paid by the driver of the vehicle involved in the accident.
He, however bemoaned the lack of insurance culture in the country and called on both corporate Ghana and individuals to eadeavour to “atleast take up a
He said SIC and other insurance companies for that matter donot place value on human beings “but we compesate it in cases of death or destruction.
 He noted that the present modernisation in the industry, particularly in the operations of SIC to meet the time needs and convenience of the Ghanaian public left no room for any individual not to get insured.
“We at SIC have just come up with the ‘SIC @Your Door’ service in which we seek to bring insurance policies to the comfort of the insuring public. So why would anybody nopt be willing to tak up atleast a fire policy which is even cheap,” he asked