RIYADH, 13 June 2003 — Two days of downpours in Riyadh cost SR2 million in insurance claims from the National Company for Cooperative Insurance (NCCI).
“Most of the claims were put in by our engineering insurance customers,” Ahmed Al-Shalaan, marketing services manager of NCCI, told Arab News.
He said the engineering losses included flood damage to roads and contract work due to the heavy downpours on April 20 and 21.
A majority of the claims came from the Central Province, where they added up to SR1.5 million, followed by the Western Province with SR500,000 in claims.
The highest engineering claim processed by NCCI for flood-related damage amounted to SR415,000. However, the total engineering claims by the company during the first half of this year were estimated at SR11.8 million against SR10.8 million disbursed last year. The claims were due to accidental damage, third party, flood, fire and other risk factors.
Earlier, NCCI paid out SR40 million ($10.6 million) in insurance claims to its Rukhsa customers, who were involved in 13,200 accidents during the last six months.
“The amount represents the total compensation paid by NCCI beginning with the enforcement of the third-party liability motor insurance, known as Rukhsa, which was launched on Nov. 20, 2002,” Al-Shalan said.
He said the compensation included the cost of motor repairs carried out as a result of the accidents, public and private property as well as the costs of death and bodily injuries caused by the accidents throughout the Kingdom.
“NCCI now covers 50 percent of the daily motor accidents that occur in the Kingdom,” he said, adding that the number of people detained by the police had also gone down as a result of the bail bond certificates they hold. NCCI also paid during the last six months SR95 million to customers of comprehensive insurance — the other branch of motor insurance.
According to available statistics, there are 3.5 to four million Saudi driving license-holders. Of these, 90 percent hold private driving licenses, while the remaining ten percent are vehicle licenses for light and medium, machinery and heavy vehicles.
NCCI mobilized its services in compulsory third party liability motor insurance, but the traffic authorities allowed 70 other insurance companies working in the Kingdom to issue such certificates as well.
