High-rise buildings in the country will soon attract compulsory insurance cover, the Commissioner of the National Insurance Commission (NIC) has said. 

Justice Yaw Ofori said, “Now we have high-rise buildings coming up in Ghana, everybody goes and he buys his unit but there should be insurance for every unit owner and there should be insurance for the whole building because if one unit owner’s unit gets burnt, it can affect the whole building but people don’t see it that way.”

He said, “We want that to be compulsory so that when you have a unit within an apartment building if the apartment building comes down because of the negligence of someone, you have some protection.”

The Commissioner says it seeks to forward a bill to parliament before the end of this year to seek government’s buy-in.

Mr Ofori said, “We are reviewing our Act so we are working on the bill right now.”

He added, “We are going to incorporate additional policies; insurance for apartments and condominiums so that it becomes law.”

As part of its resolve to expand the basket of compulsory insurances, the Commission has identified living in high-rise apartments as a risky venture.

Condominiums regulatory bill

The construction of high-rise buildings in the country is fast catching on. As a result, the Ministry of Works and Housing, last year, hinted that it was working hard to forward a bill parliament which seeks to regulate condominiums in the country. 

According to the Sector Minister, Samuel Atta-Akyea, the bill if passed would spell out rules and regulations governing the construction and siting of such high-rise buildings in the country.

Other compulsory insurances

Currently, Ghana’s insurance companies underwrite two compulsory insurance policies. That is, the Motor Third-Party policy and the Fire policy (for Private Commercial Properties).

But the Commissioner has hinted that it seeks to widen the mandatory insurance net to include others like Workmen’s Compensation, Group Life insurance, among others.