Choose an insurance company in Nigeria based on the type of claim that you may have to lodge in future.
Imagine a scenario where your car gets knocked down at Lekki Phase 1 in Lekki, and the other person just drives away. You call the insurer that evening. If the company dispatches its assessor and pays for repairs, then they have done their work well.
However, if the company needs a fourth form from you and the fifth call, then they have revealed to you what you have bought. You only discover which company you chose when making a claim, and therefore, you must verify before purchasing.
However, this is much easier this year compared to before because NAICOM now has a list of 50 registered insurers and reinsurers, reduced from 60 prior to the deadline for recapitalization. There were ten less companies in the list, and any company not in the list should never get your money.
The remaining fifty are not the same because each of them excels in specific types of claim. For example, there is a company that does well with regard to motor claims while there is one that specializes in life and annuities.
The quick table below will tell you who dominates in your area of coverage. Verify whether any of the names in your consideration list is among the leaders. Check the FAQ before making any premium payments.
| Cover you need | Lead pick | Why it leads |
|---|---|---|
| Overall | Leadway Assurance | Composite insurer, incorporated 1970, strong in large corporate risks |
| Life | AIICO Insurance | About ₦156bn in premiums with life, annuity and savings plans |
| Car | NEM Insurance | Motor was its largest claims segment at ₦13bn, and it paid ₦41.46bn in total claims. |
| Business | Custodian Insurance | Marine, fire, business interruption and professional indemnity cover |
| Travel | AXA Mansard | Schengen visas need at least €30,000 medical cover, which you should confirm it meets |
| Health | Hygeia HMO, Reliance Health | Hygeia for network size, Reliance for lower-cost digital plans |
Use the “why” column as an opening and not a final statement. We included HMOs because people who search for “insurance companies in Nigeria” usually need health cover.
How We Chose the Best Insurance Companies in Nigeria
We reject any insurer that does not pass the licence test before looking at even a single price. It is possible to have an impressive website, well-known name, and nice-looking representative and be an insurance firm that is not legally authorized to collect your premium. Every insurer listed here passed through the exact tests in the same order.
Insurers: NAICOM Verified List First
The first requirement is that the insurance company must be in the list of those firms that have been verified by NAICOM in their recapitalization. This list resulted from a process of screening and only ten insurers did not get there. Any insurer not on that list is automatically disqualified whatever attractive its offer may look.
There are four further tests to apply in this order:
Premium volume: It tells about how much business the insurer handles.
Claim payment history: This is more important than just claims ratio.
Financial rating: It will tell if the insurer can survive a large claim without delaying your settlement.
Products and services: Whether the product matches your case and whether anyone picks up the phone.
HMOs: NHIA Licence First
HMOs go by a different route since HMOs are regulated by NHIA and not NAICOM. A hospital will refuse service at the counter if it establishes that your HMO is unlicensed; hence, you check the licence before making payments.
The order of consideration for HMOs is license, followed by network size, then range of plans available, then services. Network size is prioritized among the three since a plan is only as good as the clinics that accept it. If the closest accepting clinic is two hours away from your house, you know that the plan has let you down on that night.
Types of Insurance Companies in Nigeria
Five types of insurance company you will encounter. Knowing how to distinguish them tells you what questions to ask of each.
1) Life insurance companies offer protection policies, annuity plans, and savings schemes.
2) Non-life insurance companies offer motor insurance, fire insurance, marine insurance, property insurance, and liability insurance.
3) Composite companies offer both. They must separate into life and non-life companies within five years.
4) Reinsurance companies re-insure the insurance companies. They are the type of companies you will seldom need to deal with.
5) HMOs handle health insurance plans and pay hospitals on your behalf.
1) Leadway Assurance
Best Overall Insurance Company in Nigeria
Go for Leadway if you have significant or diversified risk exposures. If you are running a logistics business based in Lagos with twenty lorries, a warehouse and forty workers, then you will be needing cover in the categories of vehicle, fire, group life and medical insurance without necessarily having to approach different companies for each product that you require.
Leadway Insurance Company Limited was incorporated way back in 1970 as a composite insurance company and hence, a single company will be able to provide all your life and non-life insurance needs. The head office of the company is situated at Funso Williams Avenue in Lagos.
Its pension and healthcare divisions are in group companies. This works well when your company requires just one relationship from one single insurer for various kinds of insurance products, even though they are different companies licensed separately.
Leadway Cover for Corporate and Group Policies
Big risks test the insurance company’s balance sheet. In case the warehouse goes up in flames, you want a company that has dealt with such claims previously.
Ask Leadway about its history of processing claims in terms of large commercial fires and group life insurance policies. How long does Leadway take to process claims on corporate cover?
If you are single looking to insure only one vehicle, things are not quite simple.
2) AIICO Insurance
Best Life Insurance Company in Nigeria
Select AIICO if you are looking for protection for those whose livelihood depends on your income. Think of a civil servant in Abuja at age 38, with two kids, and a mortgage. She will stop earning when she passes away, and her family will lose her income the following month.
AIICO started operating back in 1963 and made ₦156bn in premiums in 2024, which indicates that it has many customers who have policies. They offer life, annuity, and savings insurance products. Additionally, they have an Abuja office.
Comparison between Term Protection, Annuity, and Savings Plan of AIICO Life
Decide on the product type before purchase. Term protection gives a certain amount of money if you die and nothing if you survive. The cost of savings plan is higher because a portion of your premiums will create cash value and you will incur a loss upon withdrawal.
Annuities pay from a lump sum and this product is appropriate if you are nearing your retirement age. Don’t allow the agent to confuse you.
Request the details of the policy in writing and ask how much money you will get if you fail to pay for two consecutive premiums.
Lapsed policies give no money and this is the risk that affects families the most. Request the claims rate of AIICO life and compare with that of Custodian’s life.
3) NEM Insurance
Best Car Insurance Company in Nigeria
Go for NEM if a car is your most precious asset and there is no way you can do without it. Take, for instance, the case whereby you operate a four-year-old Toyota in Wuse every morning, and one day, you get hit by a tanker at a roundabout.
What you would want is an insurance company that has settled many claims in relation to motorists. And you would not have any problem confirming that about NEM, as it writes exclusively non-life policies. Motor is the biggest claims group for NEM at ₦13bn.
NEM Comprehensive and Third-Party Car Insurance
Two kinds of policies will be made available to you. Third party is responsible for damage caused to third parties and their property. Comprehensive includes third party coverage as well as that of the insured. Go for comprehensive if your car value exceeds what you can afford to pay for it from your savings.
Three terms in the policy should be read before you pay for it: the amount of excess you hold for each claim, the exclusions related to driving without valid licence, and the list of approved repairers.
The new medical expense requirements are ₦100,000 out-patient and ₦250,000 in-patient; make sure your policy meets those requirements. After any accident, take photographs of the accident, collect information from the other party and inform NEM during the notice period as specified in your policy.
4) AXA Mansard Insurance
Best Travel Insurance Company in Nigeria
Go for AXA Mansard when you are applying for a Schengen visa and would like to have a policy issued by an internationally branded insurer.
Let us consider an engineer from Port Harcourt going on a two-week holiday to Germany. His visa request will be rejected if he gets a policy covering anything less than €30,000 for any medical expenses incurred.
This condition applies to all insurers equally, hence, does not mean that this insurer is superior to the others. You are buying into an insurer with an international brand and offices processing visa compliant policies.
Schengen Visa Insurance by AXA Mansard
Do four checks before making your payment.
- Minimum medical cover: €30,000.
- Coverage area: all Schengen countries, not just your destination.
- Period: precisely aligning with your application period.
- Certificate: acceptable at your intended embassy.
Next, look at exclusions, especially pre-existing conditions and adventurous pursuits. Should your journey include hiking, skiing, or a pre-existing condition, confirm through writing that you are covered. Foreign country hospitalization costs much more than in Nigeria, and denied claims mean you pay in euros.
Compare the quote from AXA Mansard with two other insurers who are NAICOM approved. Visa coverage requirements are similar for all three, and cost and claims process will decide which is better.
5) Custodian Insurance
Best Business Insurance Company in Nigeria
Go for Custodian Insurance if you operate a business with tangible assets, people at the location, or professional liability. For instance, if you have a printing company at Ikeja that has tangible assets, ten employees, and people visit to make orders, and there is a fire that halts operations for two months without closing down, and you continue paying salaries and rent.
Note that Custodian insurance uses two companies, life and non-life, which are all NAICOM-certified, and establish which one underwrites the policy.
Custodian Commercial Cover: Marine, Fire and Liability
The non-life insurer offers the coverages that an entrepreneur requires. Marine coverages are for goods being moved through the sea waters. The fire coverage covers your property and stocks.
Business interruption provides for your earnings that would be lost during reconstruction process. Fire cover does not provide this coverage.
Occupiers’ liability provides for injuries sustained by people visiting your property. Professional indemnity covers losses incurred by your client based on your advice or professional work.
Fire coverage is the one that most owners take but avoid business interruption. This decision costs them a lot during a loss as the payment of rent and wages continues even when the income has been lost. Have Custodian give you quotation for both.
Valuation of your assets must be done before taking out an insurance policy. If you take out an insurance policy of ₦50 million for ₦30 million on your warehouse, the insurer may give only partial compensation during a loss.
6) Hygeia HMO
Best Health Insurance Company in Nigeria for Hospital Network
Go for Hygeia when you are looking for an insurance plan with more hospital options. What happens if your child falls ill at night in Kubwa, and you need a hospital that takes your insurance plan?
Your health insurance is worth just the hospitals that recognize it. Thus, when evaluating insurance plans, the first consideration is the number of affiliated hospitals. Note that Hygeia is an HMO.
HMO Plans Offered by Hygeia and Hospitals Covered
Do not rely blindly on the network claim. Send a request to Hygeia for the list of covered hospitals in your region and make two calls to them and find out if they accept your plan tier and need pre-authorization.
Hospital mentioned in a brochure and hospital which provides services without an advance payment are two entirely different things.
Then look at three restrictions: annual cap, waiting period for pre-existing conditions, and sub-limits for maternity services, dentistry, and optics. Even if there is a plan with very high annual cap, there can be a number of limitations on the use of some services.
Compare at least two tiers. If your family is healthy, then mid-tiers with a good network may suit you better. In case one of the family members has a chronic disease, ask detailed questions about their approach to treating such conditions.
7) Reliance Health
Best Affordable and Digital Health Insurance Plans in Nigeria
Go for Reliance when affordability and convenience are more important than the extensive coverage area. Suppose you are 29 years old and self-employed in Lagos without any health insurance plan from your company.
You need coverage that you can purchase using your mobile phone, pay for in installments without filling any paperwork, and make use of it. This is what Reliance insurance offers. It is an HMO by NHIA, just like Hygeia.
Entry-Level Health Plans from Reliance Health and How to Compare Them
Cheaper plans lower your cost through limiting something. Figure out what that thing is. It could be the list of hospitals, the cap on annual benefits or the covered services.
Request the plan schedule from Reliance and read the exceptions section carefully.
Verify the following before making a payment:
1) If your actual healthcare providers are part of the network.
2) The amount the plan covers for outpatient care, drugs and lab tests.
3) How soon the pre-natal or pre-existing conditions coverage starts.
4) The speed at which the application center gives you an authorization.
Prices vary, so verify the current premiums from the official website of Reliance. Next, compare the entry-level plan from Reliance against the corresponding plan tier of Hygeia. If both plans have similar prices, then the bigger network takes precedence.
However, if there is a big difference in prices and you are healthy, then a cheaper plan might be sufficient.
Frequently Asked Questions About Insurance Companies in Nigeria
Which Are the Top-Rated Insurance Companies and Providers in Nigeria?
Choose the company with a reputation as a leader in that category and ensure its licensing. It all depends on what you require. Our choices include Leadway for comprehensive insurance, AIICO for life insurance, NEM for car insurance, Custodian for commercial insurance, AXA Mansard for travel insurance, Hygeia for health network size and Reliance Health for inexpensive online health insurance. Refer to the quick pick chart for the rationale for the same.
Insurers and HMOs are two distinct providers of insurance services. While an insurer assumes the financial risk of a loss and is accountable to NAICOM, an HMO handles the health insurance, pays the hospitals on your behalf and reports to NHIA. If anybody refers to “provider,” ask which one they refer to.
Which Companies Offer Affordable Health Insurance Plans in Nigeria?
Begin with Reliance Health and compare its digital offerings for starters, followed by pricing of Hygeia at their same level. If you are an independent worker in Abuja without any group coverage from work, a cheaper plan will help you only if the doctors in your vicinity accept it. Lower cost plans reduce either the list of hospitals, yearly cap or the services offered. Determine that first before signing up.
Rates fluctuate frequently, so get the latest rates directly from each provider’s website and not through a comparison website. Get details of waiting period for pre-existing conditions and sub-limits on maternity, dental and optical care.
How Do I Choose the Best Car Insurance Policy in Nigeria?
Purchase comprehensive cover if the value of the vehicle exceeds what can be covered using savings. The third party cover protects you against liability for damage caused to others.
However, in addition to the third party, comprehensive cover will also cover any damage that may happen to your own vehicle. Imagine a scenario where a tanker hits your vehicle at a roundabout. Here, the third party cover compensates the other party leaving your damages unrepaired.
Then look for three things in the terms and conditions: excess per claim, exclusions and list of approved repairers. Ensure that the policy satisfies the newly introduced medical expenses limit of ₦100,000 outpatient and ₦250,000 inpatient. Research the claims history of the insurance company before comparing premiums.
How Can I Compare Life Insurance Providers in Nigeria?
Firstly, decide on what you want to buy since both pure protection and savings plans have their own distinct differences. In term protection insurance, you will get paid if you die but will not get anything if you survive. The cost of the savings plan is higher since a portion of the premium will generate cash value.
Secondly, compare the company’s track record when it comes to paying claims, its financial rating, and the terms of the contract. Know what will happen if you fail to pay premiums for two times.
How Many Insurance Companies Are There in Nigeria?
NAICOM has validated 50 insurance and reinsurance companies. The first notification showed 43 valid licences: 23 Non-Life, 10 Life, 8 Composite, and 2 Reinsurance. Another notification stated that seven other firms have been validated, making a total of 50 firms validated, which are 48 insurers and two reinsurers. There were more than 65 insurance and reinsurance firms in Nigeria prior to the validation process. Always confirm your insurer on NAICOM’s list.