Oluwaseye Ayankoya, a self-employed resident of Lagos, has recounted how Niger Insurance failed to release his N2.9 million for over two years after he asked for it. 

Niger Insurance claims it is “a leading insurance company in Nigeria that transacts all classes of insurance business and offers a wide range of innovative and customer-oriented insurance products in life and non-life insurance to its growing clients”. 

Ayankoya told FIJ that he started doing business with Niger Insurance in 2010 because one of its staff happened to be a classmate during his master’s degree programme.

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“I was doing my master’s in 2010, and my colleague in my master’s class happened to work with Niger Insurance, just like a marketer. We used to go home together, so he advised me to subscribe to the savings package, which I did. Another friend of my senior in school also worked there and presented another opportunity to subscribe to another package with Niger Insurance,” Ayankoya told FIJ on Thursday. 

“Unfortunately, the first person who introduced me to Niger Insurance quit about six months into my package. She went on to work elsewhere. The second person handled both of my accounts with Niger Insurance but he too left. Nonetheless, I continued to pay my subscription through Pay Direct. I confirmed this with a certificate I got on a yearly basis. 

“I made sure that I was committed to this subscription. Even when I signed out in November 2020, I made sure I paid my final subscription for December to ensure the annual payment was complete. I wouldn’t know how a faithful subscriber who has been consistent for over 10 years will have their sum held. I have been consistent for 10 years.”

Documents show that Ayankoya signed up for a personal pension and savings plan in June 2010. 

While the maturity date of the savings plan is June 2042, subscribers to the savings plan can opt out of the plan. 

Ayankoya told FIJ that the total surrendered amount as stated in November 2020 was as follows:

ALD/S26***: N1,452,293.00
ALD/S26***: N1,490,437.00

Total: N 2,942,730.00

READ ALSO: After FIJ’s Story, Niger Insurance Pays Investor’s N378,000 Held for 4 Years

“It is over two years and four months since I requested for liquidation of my insurance funds, and the request is yet to be processed,” Ayankoya told FIJ. 

“I’ve been getting no response from them since November 25, 2020, when I signed the liquidation agreement. Nothing is going on; everybody I called refused to pick up, or switched off their line. Any time I go to their office, there will be nobody to speak with and they will give me a phone number to call with no answer when I call. That is how it has been for over two years. 

“The last engagement I had with them, they said that they wanted to sell one property and they would be able to pay out once they were done with the sale. Even now, nobody is answering the phone. I am very sure this insurance company is regulated. 

“Upon my visit to their office at Odunlami in Marina, Lagos, the usual phrase is ‘no one is available’. This is my hard-earned savings.” 

FIJ called Niger Insurance’s official phone numbers and got no response. Chukwuemeka Ugwu used to be with Niger Insurance, but he told FIJ that he was not with Niger Insurance anymore.

“Are you a client?” Ugwu asked this reporter.

“I am not working with Niger Insurance anymore.”

A mail sent to the company’s email address had received no response at press time.