Lagos State Pioneers Digital Building Insurance, Bolstering Urban Resilience and Compliance

Lagos State has launched the Lagos Building Insurance Scheme (LAGBIS), a groundbreaking digital platform designed to revolutionise building insurance, compliance, and risk management across Africa. This initiative aims to provide insurance protection for an ambitious 500,000 buildings in its initial phase, marking a significant step towards enhanced urban safety and regulatory adherence.

Developed in collaboration with VEDA Technology and key stakeholders within Nigeria’s insurance sector, LAGBIS addresses critical concerns arising from recent fire incidents and escalating property losses due to disasters. The programme integrates insurance services, regulatory compliance, public education, and enforcement into a unified digital ecosystem. According to Brandspur Brand News, nine insurers licensed by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) are participating in the pilot phase, with plans to extend coverage to all licensed insurance companies by the end of 2026.

The digital platform leverages advanced technology, including building records, cadastral mapping, satellite imagery, and address intelligence across Lagos’ 20 local government areas, to streamline access to mandatory building insurance. It seamlessly connects with the Nigerian Insurance Industry Database, the Lagos State Building Control Agency’s compliance framework, and the Electronic Physical Planning Permit System. This integration facilitates rapid policy issuance, digital verification, and continuous compliance monitoring, ensuring that every policy generates an automatically verifiable digital insurance compliance certificate for inspection purposes.

Representing Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Deputy Chief of Staff Sam Egube highlighted LAGBIS as a pivotal institutional reform aimed at reinforcing confidence in Lagos as a secure and resilient city, aligning with the administration’s urban development objectives. The state intends to utilise a database of approximately three million mapped buildings to drive implementation, targeting 500,000 structures in the first phase.

VEDA Technology CEO Bode Pedro emphasised that the platform was conceived through extensive collaboration to dismantle historical barriers to mandatory building insurance compliance. The digital ecosystem is engineered to simplify policy acquisition, enhance transparency, and expedite the settlement of valid claims, thereby fostering greater public trust in Nigeria’s insurance industry. The initiative’s unveiling drew significant attendance from senior government officials, insurance regulators, industry leaders, and built environment representatives, underscoring the broad-based support for this forward-thinking approach to urban resilience and insurance sector development.

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