CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Insurance in its modern form was first introduced into Nigeria by the British long before the arrival of the British a lot of organized trading activities was going on in the Nigeria territory, but there was no organized insurance business, as we know it today. The first insurance company to have a full branch office in Nigeria was the Royal Exchange Assurance. It opened, its first office in Lagos in 1921 and until 1949 it practically dominated insurance business in the country. Therefore, there was high degrees of awareness of the importance of insurance services to the economic growth and business world particularly in Edo State and Nigeria in general. At the end of 1989 to 1998, insurance companies were operating as registered companies in Nigeria and most are indigenous. The leading indigenes insurance company in Nigeria is the National Insurance Cooperation of Nigeria (NICON) which is fully owned by the Federal Government of Nigeria which underwrites about 25% of the total insurance business in Nigeria.
Some of the objectives of the company is to encourage commercial houses, cooperation’s and companies to go into ventures by giving them cover against possible losses. It also encourages the spirit of savings by way of life assurance which provides benefits for the dependent, in case of untimely death of the assured. The board is run by experienced men and a set of businessmen and it headed by a chairman. The management of the company is completely Nigerianised (i.e. Nigerians) as mentioned before. The chief executive is the general manager who directly responsible to the board of directors. He supervised day-to-day running of the company and he is assisted by experienced and able senior management staffs who are in charge of finance, administration, life and pension and technical department. This was however, attributed to government stringent economic measure and poor economic situations of the country. According to the insurance Act of 1976, insurance in Nigeria is divided into two main classes. Thus life assurance and non-life insurance.
A. Life Assurance
i. Whole life assurance
ii. Endowment
iii. Children education and assurance
iv. Mortgage protection
v. Terms assurance
vi. Group business protection
B. Non-Life Insurance
i. Motor vehicles
ii. Burglary house breaking
iii. Fire
iv. Cash-in-transit
v. Goods-in-transit
vi. Bonds
vii. All risks/contractors
viii. Fidelity
ix. Workman’s accident
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1.2 BACKGROUND STUDY OF BENIN CITY AND BUSINESS IN BENIN CITY
The emerged of insurance company in Edo State can be traced to 1968 when the first branch of UNIC insurance company opened in Benin City. This awareness brought a boom to the insurance industry. It was during this period of boom in the insurance company that UNIC insurance company limited came into existence in Benin City. One of the main objective of the UNIC insurance company is to increase investment and better public awareness of the benefit of insurance to society at large. In the first two years of its inception the UNIC insurance company incurred net losses of N10, 000 and N54, 000 respectively of course, this was the formative years, then followed a period of modest growth and success during which profit were recorded. But between 1989 and 1991, there was a succession of high loss margin. This was however attributed to government stringent economic measures and poor economic situation of the country. However, UNIC insurance company offers all types of insurance protection. Some of the demerit of the UNIC insurance company is that poor public awareness regarding the principle of insurance has not helped, and even among those Nigerians that do know the benefits of insurance cover, there remains a widespread perception that Nigerian insurance are reluctant to settle claims.