NAICOM insurtech rules in Nigeria took effect on 1 August 2025 and introduce, for the first time, a formal licensing regime for technology-driven insurance operators, alongside a related law that hardens claim settlement deadlines. Together, the NAICOM Insurtech Guidelines and the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) 2025 push Nigerian insurers and their technology partners toward faster, better documented, and more accountable claims handling. For insurance leaders in the CIMA zone and Morocco, the details matter less than the direction: Africa's largest insurance market has decided that claims speed and digital accountability are now regulatory, not optional.
What exactly did NAICOM change with the 2025 Insurtech Guidelines, and since when do they apply?
NAICOM issued the Guidelines for Insurtech Operations in Nigeria through a circular dated 30 July 2025, with the rules becoming effective the following day, on 1 August 2025, according to a regulatory update published by Mondaq. Any entity already running an insurtech solution in Nigeria was given 30 days from the circular's issuance, meaning a deadline of 31 August 2025, to regularise its operations or face administrative sanctions, as reported by a Scribd summary of the Guidelines.
This is a sharp shift from the informal, unregulated way many claims-adjacent digital tools had operated in Nigeria until then. Before the Guidelines, an insurtech offering policy administration, claims support or distribution technology to an insurer could do so without a dedicated licence. After 1 August 2025, that is no longer the case.
How does NAICOM define an "Insurtech" and what are the two licence categories?
The Guidelines define an Insurtech as an institution that uses technological innovations to provide insurance services efficiently and effectively, and they create two distinct licence categories: Standalone Insurtech and Partnering Insurtech, according to the same Mondaq regulatory update. The distinction determines what a technology company is allowed to do, and with whom.
Standalone Insurtech
A Standalone Insurtech can offer insurance products directly, including Health, Term assurance, Motor, Agric insurance and other specified lines. It is explicitly excluded from special risk products such as Oil & Gas, Marine & Aviation, Retiree Life Annuity and Government MDA insurance. This category is closer to becoming a licensed insurer in its own right, with capital obligations to match.
Partnering Insurtech
A Partnering Insurtech works alongside a licensed insurer rather than underwriting risk itself. Permissible activities explicitly include claims management, in addition to marketing and distribution, customer service, policy administration, product management and business aggregation, per the Mondaq analysis. This is the category most claims-management SaaS platforms would fall into if they operated in Nigeria: they support an insurer's workflow without carrying underwriting risk.
The Guidelines also draw clear lines around what technology is allowed to do inside a claim. They expressly prohibit unsupervised automated claims rejections and crypto-based transactions, among other banned practices, according to the same source. In other words, automation can speed a claim toward settlement, but a human decision-maker must still sit behind any rejection.
What does "zero tolerance for claim settlement delays" actually mean under NIIRA 2025, and is there a legal deadline?
NIIRA 2025, signed into law on 31 July 2025, introduced in Section 210 a requirement that insurers settle all admitted claims, other than special risks, within 60 days of notification, according to reporting by The Nigerian Voice. Where an insurer fails to pay within that window, the claimant can ask NAICOM to draw payment from the insurer's statutory deposit, and the insurer becomes liable for a N500,000 penalty plus monthly compound interest, per the same source.
The phrase "zero tolerance for delays in claims settlement" is a policy statement, not a standalone legal clause. It was used by the President of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) to describe the intent behind NIIRA 2025's claims provisions, as reported by The Nigerian Voice. The enforceable mechanism sits in Section 210's 60-day rule and the associated statutory-deposit and penalty regime, not in the slogan itself.
The stakes are real at industry scale. NAICOM's 2025 industry bulletin recorded gross claims of N882 billion, representing 47% of N2.35 trillion in Gross Written Premium, up from N662 billion in 2024, according to The Nigerian Voice's coverage of the first year under NIIRA. Settlement speed is no longer a customer-service metric alone; it is now tied to a regulator's enforcement powers over an insurer's deposit.
It is also worth noting this is not entirely new territory for Nigeria. A 2015 NAICOM circular had already invoked Section 8(1)(m) of the Insurance Act 2003 to sanction insurers who "persistently fail to pay claims promptly," and Section 70(1)(b) of the same Act had set a 90-day settlement window, according to The Guardian Nigeria. NIIRA 2025 tightens that window to 60 days and attaches a more specific financial penalty.
What capital, levy and compliance requirements must insurtechs and their partners meet in Nigeria?
The two licence categories carry very different capital thresholds. A Standalone Insurtech must maintain minimum share capital equal to the higher of NGN1.5 billion per non-life category or NGN1 billion per life category, or a risk-based capital figure set by NAICOM, according to the Mondaq regulatory update. A Partnering Insurtech, by contrast, needs a much lower NGN10 million minimum capital, but must carry NGN100 million in professional indemnity cover, per the same source.
Beyond capital, NAICOM's Guidelines impose operational discipline that reads like a checklist for any serious claims platform: a Service Level Agreement is required for every Partnering Insurtech relationship, products and digital tools need prior NAICOM approval, KYC checks are mandatory, complaints must be resolved within two weeks, and electronic records must be retained for at least ten years, according to an analysis by Olaniwun Ajayi LP. A Partnering Insurtech licence is valid for four years; the Guidelines are silent on the licence duration for a Standalone Insurtech, per the Mondaq update.
How does this compare to the CIMA Code's own claim settlement deadlines?
Insurers operating under the CIMA Code already work under settlement obligations, though they are structured differently from Nigeria's new rules.
| Aspect | Nigeria (NIIRA 2025) | CIMA Zone (CIMA Code, Motor Liability) |
|---|---|---|
| Core deadline | Settle admitted claims within 60 days of notification (Section 210) | Present a compensation offer within 12 months of the accident, or 8 months for a deceased victim's beneficiaries (Article 231) |
| Response to claimant demand | Not separately specified | Respond to a victim's reasoned indemnification demand within 30 days (Article 231) |
| Penalty for delay | N500,000 fine, claim paid from insurer's statutory deposit, plus monthly compound interest | Automatic late-payment penalty of 5% per month of delay on the indemnity amount, reducible for circumstances not attributable to the insurer (Article 233) |
| Enforcement body | NAICOM | National insurance supervisory authority within each CIMA member state |
The two regimes are not measuring the same moment in a claim's life: Nigeria's 60-day rule applies once a claim is admitted, while the CIMA Code's 12-month figure covers the presentation of a compensation offer to a motor liability victim, which can be a longer and more complex process, especially for bodily injury. Even so, both systems share the same underlying logic: a defined time limit, and an automatic financial consequence for the insurer when that limit is missed.
What should CIMA-zone and Moroccan insurers and brokers learn from Nigeria's insurtech regulation?
Three lessons stand out for insurance leaders watching from outside Nigeria.
First, digital claims tools are moving from a competitive advantage to a compliance requirement. NAICOM did not simply encourage digitalization; it built a licensing structure around it, with explicit rules for how automation may and may not be used inside a claim, including the ban on unsupervised automated rejections. Any CIMA-zone or Moroccan insurer already using digital claims workflows is, in effect, rehearsing for a similar conversation with its own regulator.
Second, settlement speed is becoming a measurable, enforceable obligation rather than a service promise. Nigeria's 60-day rule and the CIMA Code's existing deadlines both show that regulators are willing to attach direct financial penalties, drawn from statutory deposits or compounding interest, to slow claims. An insurer that can prove, file by file, when a claim was declared, quoted, validated and paid is far better positioned if a similar deadline regime tightens in its own market.
Third, documentation and traceability are becoming the real compliance currency. NAICOM's ten-year record retention requirement and its insistence on SLAs, KYC and complaint-resolution timelines all point toward the same expectation: insurers must be able to show, not just claim, that a file moved correctly and on time.
How can a platform like YourSmartFlow help insurers get ahead of stricter settlement-delay rules, wherever they operate in Africa?
Regardless of which specific deadline eventually applies in a given market, the practical challenge is the same: a motor claim only settles quickly when the insured, the broker or insurer, the expert and the garage are working from the same file in real time, instead of exchanging documents by email, phone and physical visits. YourSmartFlow connects those four parties on one platform, letting the insured declare a claim by web, app or WhatsApp and track its progress, while the garage submits quotes, invoices and certified before/after photos, and the expert validates remotely.
That structure matters directly for the kind of deadlines discussed in this article. Photos captured through YSF's technology partner WeProov are geolocated and timestamped, which helps insurers document exactly when a claim moved from declaration to expert validation, a useful record if a regulator ever asks how long a file took to close. Once a claim file is complete, settlement can also be triggered automatically through an API connection, shortening the gap between an admitted claim and its payment. Based on data across YSF's client base, insurers using the platform have seen an estimated 10 to 15% reduction in claim burden, with a typical go-live in four weeks and first-year ROI.
For a deeper look at how digitalization is reshaping motor claims across the continent, see this guide to insurtech and insurance digitalization in Africa.
Conclusion
Nigeria's NAICOM Insurtech Guidelines and NIIRA 2025 are, for now, specific to one market, but the pattern they set is not. Licensing frameworks for insurtechs, restrictions on automated claims decisions, and hard financial penalties for settlement delays all point toward a continent-wide direction that CIMA-zone and Moroccan regulators are likely to follow in some form. Insurers and brokers who build traceable, fast, well-documented claims processes now, whether or not their own regulator has caught up yet, will be the ones with the least to fear when it does.
Frequently asked questions
Since when are NAICOM's Insurtech Guidelines legally in force, and did existing insurtechs get a grace period to comply?
The Guidelines were issued via a NAICOM circular dated 30 July 2025 and became effective on 1 August 2025. Entities already operating an insurtech solution in Nigeria were given 30 days from the circular's issuance, meaning until 31 August 2025, to regularise their operations. Missing that window exposes an operator to administrative sanctions from NAICOM.
Does NAICOM's 'zero tolerance' for claim delays mean there is now a fixed legal deadline to settle a motor claim in Nigeria?
Yes, in practical terms. NIIRA 2025's Section 210 requires insurers to settle admitted claims, other than special risks, within 60 days of notification. 'Zero tolerance for delays' itself is a policy phrase used by industry leaders to describe the intent behind this rule, rather than a separately codified legal term, but the 60-day deadline and its penalties are the enforceable mechanism.
What is the difference between a 'Standalone' and a 'Partnering' Insurtech licence, and which one would a claims-management SaaS like YSF fall under if it operated in Nigeria?
A Standalone Insurtech underwrites and sells insurance products directly, subject to high capital requirements and exclusions for special risk lines. A Partnering Insurtech instead supports a licensed insurer's operations, with claims management explicitly listed as a permissible activity, and carries a much lower capital threshold plus mandatory professional indemnity cover. A claims-management SaaS platform working alongside insurers, rather than underwriting risk itself, would fall into the Partnering Insurtech category.
How do Nigeria's new settlement-delay rules compare with the CIMA Code's existing indemnification deadlines?
Nigeria's NIIRA 2025 sets a 60-day deadline from claim notification to settle an admitted claim, backed by a fixed fine and interest penalty. The CIMA Code instead requires a motor liability insurer to present a compensation offer within 12 months of the accident, or 8 months for a deceased victim's beneficiaries, and to respond to a victim's reasoned demand within 30 days, with a 5% monthly late-payment penalty under Article 233. The two systems measure different stages of a claim, but both attach automatic financial consequences to delay.
Are automated or AI-driven claims decisions restricted under the NAICOM Guidelines?
Yes. The Guidelines expressly prohibit unsupervised automated claims rejections, meaning an insurtech or insurer cannot let a system decline a claim without human oversight. Other banned practices under the same Guidelines include crypto-based transactions. This reflects a broader regulatory expectation that automation can accelerate a claim but should not replace human accountability for negative decisions.
Could similar insurtech licensing or settlement-deadline rules be introduced in the CIMA zone or Morocco, and how should insurers prepare now?
There is no confirmed CIMA-zone or Moroccan equivalent to NAICOM's Insurtech Guidelines or NIIRA's 60-day rule at this time, so this remains a matter of anticipation rather than fact. Given that the CIMA Code already enforces its own settlement deadlines and penalties, and that Nigeria's reforms show regulators are willing to formalise digital claims oversight, insurers and brokers are well advised to build traceable, well-documented digital claims processes now rather than waiting for a similar framework to arrive.
