There are strong indications that the recently collapsed 21-storey building in Ikoyi, Lagos, has no insurance coverage, goldennewsng.com investigation revealed.
As of yesterday, insurance operators under the auspices of the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) as well as the insurance brokerage fraternity, that is, the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) were still searching for the likely insurer of the building, but to no avail.
NIA is a body of 58 insurance and reinsurance companies in the country while NCRIB is a council of about 500 insurance brokers across the federation.
Although, building insurance is part of the requirements for documentation and approval to construct such an edifice, insider sources said the contractors have little regard for insurance coverage, seeing the cover as a waste of money.
For a building of this magnitude, industry source disclosed that the premium for All-Risks Construction Liability Insurance coverage is about one per cent of the entire building project, which invariably means the premium the owner of this building could have paid is about N500 million or less.
The premium, if paid, could have covered that cost of rebuilding the collapsed structure, compensation for the third parties involved, including families of the deceased victims as well as the other properties affected by the disaster.
However, without insurance, it puts pressure on Lagos State government to cough out fund by all means to compensate the families of the victims from the purse of the state, which ordinarily should not have been so had the project been insured.