Only 40 per cent of the 67 insurance companies in Nigeria have the capacity to underwrite aviation insurance risks, the Managing Director of AXA Mansard Insurance PLC, Mr Kunle Ahmed, has said.

Speaking yesterday at the fifth CHINET Aviation Cargo with the theme: ‘The Emerging Synergy Between Aviation and Insurance,’ held in Lagos, Ahmed said the aviation industry had high-risk capacity, which hindered the majority of the insurance companies in Nigeria from participating in aviation insurance.

To be able to underwrite aviation risks, Ahmed explained that Section 15 of the new Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) 2025 had upped the minimum capital base for participants to N15 billion from the initial N3 billion.

This, he said, had made the 40 per cent Nigerian insurance companies competitive and capable of addressing aviation sector risks.He also stated that insurance companies in the country were now capable of paying insurance claims and urged operators to report any erring insurance companies to the Nigeria Insurance Association (NIA) for appropriate sanction.

In his presentation, the Commissioner for the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Mr Olusegun Omosehin, observed gaps between aviation and insurance companies.

Omosehin, who was represented at the occasion by the Deputy Commissioner, Insurance, Technical, NAICOM, Dr Usman Jankara, stated that the high insurance premiums in the aviation industry were due to the high risks of the sector.

He, however, said that stakeholders in the insurance sector were engaging with players in the Nigerian aviation industry to address the challenges and lead the domestication of the laws.

Omosehin declared that the essence of NAICOM was not to protect the insurance companies, but to ensure high protection for clients. The President of Insurance Professional Ladies, Mrs Bimbo Onakomaiya, reeled out statistics of aircraft in Nigeria and airports in Nigeria.

According to her, there are no fewer than 370 aircraft in the Nigerian registry, including 147 belonging to the Nigerian Air Force, presidential fleet, 170 commercial aircraft, and the others are in the business aviation category She also explained that there were 31 airports, 91 airstrips, and 13 scheduled airlines in the country.

The Managing Director of Overland Airways, Capt. Edward Boyo, accused the Nigerian Government of expunging Part 18 from the new Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations (NCARs), which compels the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to ensure all the country’s airports are insured. Boyo declared that most of the challenges facing the domestic airlines were primarily caused by airport inefficiencies.