NIC, Fire Service enforce fire insurance

The National Insurance Commission (NIC) and the Ghana National Fire Service have intensified efforts to enforce provisions in the Insurance Law that mandates all commercial properties in the country to insure their premises, occupants and visitors against fire.

Over the past two weeks, the NIC and the Fire Service have been visiting commercial properties to inspect fire insurance stickers to satisfy themselves that they are covered against fire outbreaks.

It is expected that the enforcement actions being undertaken by the two state institutions will enable insurers to know which commercial properties are not covered and encourage the property owners to take the necessary fire insurance policy. It is also envisaged that the compulsory fire insurance policy will boost the fire insurance portfolio of industry players, with insurers hoping for strict enforcement of the compulsory insurance policy.

Recently, a similar inspection exercise undertaken by the NIC and Fire Service revealed that about 500 commercial properties in the Greater Accra Region alone are operating without the mandatory fire insurance policy cover, putting the occupants and visitors to the buildings at risk of loss of compensation in the event of a fire outbreak.

The non-compliance with the fire insurance provisions in the insurance law comes at a time major public places and buildings across the country have been razed by fire, prompting national security concerns.

The NIC has said that it is concerned that property owners of private commercial buildings have failed to insure their properties, in contravention of provisions in the insurance law.

“Although sections 183 & 184 of the Insurance Act 724 make it compulsory for private commercial buildings -- including those under construction -- to insure, most landlords have refused to honour those provisions,” it said.

In recent times, there has been a growing concern about the high incidence of fire outbreaks in the country, which has prompted calls for concerted efforts to stem the tide.

According to the Ghana National Fire Service, it recorded about 265 fire outbreaks in the first two weeks of this year across the country -- which suggests that on average about 19 fires occurred per day and almost one every hour within the period.

With the coming into force of compulsory fire insurance and other allied perils (flood, earthquake and storms) policies for commercial buildings, insurance practitioners have called for education on fire insurance to be enhanced to enable the public to understand the need to take fire insurance and other precautionary measures.