As per the Federal Roads Safety Corps (FRSC), all vehicles in Nigeria are supposed to be insured for at least 10 percent of the vehicle's value. However, out of the 12 million vehicles running on the roads of Nigeria, only 12 percent have legit vehicle insurance; the rest are either without insurance or have fake insurance certificates.
The reason for this lacking is due to the system of insurance transactions being manual in Nigeria. People often avoid taking insurance when everything from registration to claims is done manually. When they take it, they delay its renewals or sometimes don't even renew for years. To help this situation, companies like Etap have emerged. Etap helps buying insurance become smooth and hassle-free for all Nigerians. They claim to provide an insurance registration within 90 seconds and cater to all registered claims within 3 minutes maximum.
Etap is now also expanding towards the West African countries with the funds raised by Mobility 54, which again is a venture capital of Toyota Tsusho and CFAO. Other companies like Tangerine Insurance and Newmont have invested too in Etap's growing business. These companies believe that firms like Etap can revolutionize the automobile insurance sector all over Africa if given the right amount of support.
CEO of Etap, Mr. Ibraheem Babalola, while taking this investment from Mobility 54, says that the insurance and services we provide are exceptional, which is why expanding it all over Africa is important.
Mr. Babalola has been an agitated customer of insurance companies for a long time. He says that whenever my insurance used to expire, there was no notification or even an auto-renewal. So whenever my renewal was due, I had to go through the hassle of calling and getting the renewals done myself.
He adds that Nigeria, having one of the riskiest environments, must have most of its cars insured; however, the case is quite the opposite here. He says that he is unsure how in such risk-based environments, people are comfortable driving uninsured cars against all odds. Facing all such scenarios, he came up with Etap, here ensuring a vehicle would be as simple as clicking a picture, thus giving it the name Etap.
Etap also launched its beta version last year, where the insurance is booked as per the user's needs, it can be as short as a day, and even to a full year, all can be booked on Etap. On the other hand, quick response and accuracy is not the only highlight of the firm. It also has other features, as the insurance price depends upon the driver’s behavior, and customers can earn winning points for themselves, making it more of a good deal to opt for. The app’s additional features include timestamps, crash notifications, location tags, etc.
To prevent fraud, the company ensures a proper vehicle inspection before signing the insurance, and another inspection is done if any accident occurs. All of this analysis is done based on pictures.
