FAQ

  • General Information

    What are the services Nyala Insurance provides for its clients?

    Nyala Insurance S.C. provides Three Pronged Services:

    I. GENERAL INSURANCES

    Personal Line

     

    a) Accident and Health   

    • Personal Accident
    • Travel
      • Health
      • Diaspora Assistant
     

    b) Property

    • Fire and Lightning
    • Burglary & Housebreaking
    • Plate Glass
    • All Risks
     

    c) Motor Private Vehicle

    Commercial Line

     

    a) Accident and Health

    1. Group Personal Accident
    2. Workmen’s Compensation
    3. Travel Health
     

    b) Property

    1. Fire and Lightning
    2. Loss of Profit
    3. Burglary & Housebreaking
    4. Engineering:

                       i. Contractors All Risks (CAR)
                      ii. Erection All Risks (EAR)
                      iii. Contractor’s Plant and Machinery (CPM)
                      iv. Machinery Breakdown (MB)
                      v. Electronics Equipment Insurance (EEI)
                     vi. Boiler and Pressure Vessel (BPV)
                     vii. Industrial All Risks (IAR)

          5. Motor commercial Vehicle           

            i. Dry Cargo Goods Carrying Vehicle

           ii. Liquid Cargo Goods Carrying Vehicle

         iii. Public Carrying Vehicle

          iv. Motor Trade

           v. Yellow Card

     

    c) Marine

      1. Cargo All Risks

      2. Inland Transit

     

    d) Liability

    1. Professional Indemnity
    2. Public Liability
    3. Product Liability
    4. Commercial General Liability
    5. Carrier’s Liability
    6. Director’s and Officer’s (D&O) Liability
      e) Pecuniary
    1. Money / Cash
    2. Fidelity Guarantee
    3. Bonds (Bid, Performance, Advance Payment, Maintenance, and Retention)
     

    f) Aviation

    1. Hull all risks
    2. Ground risk
     

    g) Airport Liability (airside, catering)

    I. LIFE AND HEALTH INSURANCES
     
    • Term,

    • Endowment

    • Whole Life, and

    • Mortgage Redemption.

    III. MICRO-INSURANCE SERVICES  
     
    • Multiple-Peril Crop Insurance,

    • Weather Index-Crop Insurance, and

    • Livestock Insurance.

    How do I report an accident and make an Insurance Claim?

    We hope you're never involved in an accident, but if you are, we are here to help. Service Centers can help guide you through the claims process and learn what steps to take.

    Nyala Insurance issues call for assistance tags to all its Motor Policy holders to be placed at a visible place inside their vehicles. In case of road accidents, the driver or others may use the information on the tag and call:

    1. Nearest Service Center or contact office
    2. Nights, weekends, and public holidays: 24/7
    3. Other types of policy holders are advised to always keep with them telephone numbers of NISCO’S Service Centers, or the emergency call No. 011-6626667, and their respective policy number and expiry dates.
    4. Staff Responsiveness: NISCO and its customers are partners in service requiring routine and daily enhancement not through promises but through practical steps: Accordingly, we aim to answer your telephone call within 4 rings.
    5. Let you know the name of the person you are talking to.
    6. Get back to you on any query unanswered there and then, within 24 working hours.
    7. Be honest and open to you in all our dealings, whatever it may cost us.

    Why Nyala Insurance?

    What makes us stand out is our relentless pursuit to help our customers manage their risks, recover from the unexpected, and achieve peace of mind. Besides, Nyala Insurance Share Company has the following qualities:

    • Strong financial capacity (Birr 340 million paid up capital and about Birr 1.9 billion in asset)
    • Strong management system
    • We are easy-to-do-business-with
    • We work with world renowned and reliable Re-insurers
    • Our unique features include:
      • Know Your Policy (KYP)
      • Customer Advisory Service (CAS)
      • Insurance Awareness Session (IAS)
      • NISCO-Net
      • Call for Assistance (CFA)
      • Protection With Care
      • Service Must Equate Promise

    Where do I find information about Nyala insurance?

    You can first go to your nearest NISCO branch, call us, come in person to our Customers’ Relations Management office: 1st floor at the Head Office (Protection House).

    Why do I need an Insurance Cover?

    At NISCO we believe that, Insurance benefits individuals, organizations and society in more ways than the average person realizes.  Some of the benefits of insurance are:

    • Peace of Mind:The knowledge that insurance exists to meet financial consequences of certain risks provide a form of peace of mind.  One can directly deal on his business matters than thinking of possible likelihood of a loss or event of loss occurring.
    • Loss Control:Insurers do have an interest in reducing the frequency and severity of a loss, not only to enhance their profitability but also to contribute to the general reduction in economic waste which follows from losses.  E.g. our engineers conduct a pre-risk assessment and advise you on ways to minimize fire or flood occurrence at your premises.
    • Insurance Ensures Family and Business Stability: Insurance is a safety net when risks go wrong. Life insurance can support the life of a family, should a member be lost. It’s similar for a business. Should a key member or piece of equipment go out of commission, the business can carry on, thanks to insurance. This reason why insurance is important dovetails nicely with peace of mind. It all goes back to the idea that insurance, when activated, makes policyholders whole again.

    In conclusion, to protect your family and assets in a claim situation; Insurance helps you pay for property damages and health/medical expenses related to an insured event.  In order to drive a car you own, you must have insurance by law (i.e.; Compulsory Third Party Insurance).  Banks also requires you to have insurance when you have a loan or lease on a car or home.

    How do I get an insurance cover?

    Insurance coverage is the amount of risk or liability that is covered for an individual or entity by way of insurance services. Insurance coverage, such as Property insurance, life and Health insurance – or more exotic forms, such as Micro insurance – are issued by NISCO in the event of unforeseen occurrences.

    • For your property insurance need, you can contact the Head Quarter or the nearest service outlet distributed all over the country.
    • For your life and health insurance need, you can contact our Life and Health branch, Telephone # 0116639065/0911207392, Fax 0116626713
    • For your micro-insurance need, you can contact our Micro-insurance Service Center, Telephone # 0116180491/0911207772, Fax 0116626706
  • Micro-Insurance

    What is Micro-Insurance?

    Micro insurance protects against loss of or damage to crops or livestock. It has great potential to provide value to low-income farmers and their communities, both by protecting farmers when shocks occur and by encouraging greater investment in crops. However, in practice its effectiveness has often been constrained by the difficulty of designing good products and by demand constraints.

    At NISCO, Micro insurance can indemnify policyholders for losses, though such indemnity products are relatively rare (particularly in the Ethiopian Insurance Industry) due to the high costs of administration and the risk of fraud.  

    Why Micro-Insurance?

    Because of its fragmented nature and susceptibility to climate risk, rain-feed smallholder farming has long stayed as a less appealing market for both insurance and input credit. However, as NISCO considers itself as a corporate member of the society and aspires to play role in sharing societal problems, the company is delighted to extend its care and protection commitment through innovative solutions to the marginalized rural poor; despite the challenges therein.

    At NISCO, we believed that micro-insurance improves farmers’ access to credit and encourage them to invest on improved input and technology through guarantying peace of mind. In collaboration with various national and international organizations the company has so far insured more than five thousand farmers for crop and livestock risks.

    What are the basic Micro-Insurance coverages available at NISCO?

    Nyala Insurance provides its customers with the following basic Micro Insurance coverages.

    • Multi-Peril Crop Insurance
    • Weather index Crop Insurance
    • Livestock Insurance
    •  

    Multi-Peril Crop Insurance (MPCI)

    MPCI protects against crop yield losses by allowing participating producers to insure a certain percentage of historical crop production. At NISCO a single Multi-Peril Crop Insurance policy protects crops against:

    • Drought
    • Windstorm
    • Excessive Rainfall
    • Uncontrollable plant disease
    • Pests
    • Fire and Lightning

    Weather Index-Crop Insurance

    Weather index-based insurance is an attractiveapproach to managing weather and climaterisk because it uses a weather index, such asrainfall, to determine payouts and these canbe made more quickly.

    Index based insurance indemnify farmers based on change in index rather than an assessment of damage. The index is based on a specific weather parameter that is closely correlated with yield and measured over a specific period of time at a particular weather station or satellite information. Crops under the index based crop insurance can be covered against drought or shortage of rainfall.

     

    Livestock Insurance

    Livestock insurance indemnify the Insured against loss or damage in the event of the covered livestock be lost or destructed during the period of insurance by death or emergency slaughter on medical grounds as a direct result of the following:

    • Accident
    • Illness and Diseases
    • Smoke, Fire, Lightning, and
    • Windstorm

    Please note that subject matter of insurance are all animals of the bovine species which belong to the farm(s) described in the schedule, provided that they have reached the age of more than 90 days.

  • Life Assurance

    What Does Life Insurance Cover?

    In its basic form, a life insurance policy provides death benefits and is designed to cover loss of income, end-of-life expenses, funeral costs and other financial needs that a family may have if you – the policyholder – should die unexpectedly.

    Why Is Life Insurance Important?

    Life insurance can protect your family from becoming financially burdened in the event that you unexpectedly die, especially if you are the primary income earner for your household. Life insurance proceeds can help your loved ones cushion the economic impact that may occur as a result of your death.
    Life insurance is important for different individuals for different reasons. For some people, it is important to cover end-of-life costs while others want to create a large financial legacy for their dependents and heirs. Some people want a life insurance policy that will help their business continue to flourish after their passing. Others want to create an endowment that will benefit an important cause or institution.

    What are basic life assurance coverages available at NISCO?

    NyalaInsurance provides its customers with the following basic Life-assurance coverages.

    • Term
    • Endowment
    • Whole Life and
    • Mortgage Redemption Insurance

     Term insurance policy 
    Terminsurance is a “no frill” type of a life insurance that provides coverage only for a particular ‘term’ or for defined number of years. These terms can be for 10, 20 or 30 years. It is a “pure” life insurance simply because, you actually pay for the value of the death benefit for your family members in the form of either monthly or yearly premiums. Term insurance is actually designed to safeguard you from uncertainties.
    Endowment plan 
    An endowment plan is a combination of insurance and investment. Any life insurance plan that has a saving component along with a lump sum benefit is called as an endowment plan. If you pass away during the term of your policy, your nominee will receive the benefits of the sum assured amount and guaranteed returns. However, since the biggest advantage of an endowment plan is that if you survive throughout the term of your policy, then at maturity you will be paid the sum assured along with the other benefits in the form of bonus. It is totally recommended to everyone.
    Whole LifeInsurance
    Whole life insurance is a life insurance policy which is guaranteed to remain in force for the insured's entire lifetime, provided required premiums are paid, or to the maturity date. As a life insurance policy it represents a contract between the insured and insurer that as long as the contract terms are met, the insurer will pay the death benefit of the policy to the policy's beneficiaries when the insured dies.
    Whole life premiums are fixed, based on the age of issue, and usually do not increase with age. The insured normally pays premiums until death, except for limited pay policies which may be paid up in 10 years, 20 years, or at age 65.
    Mortgage Redemption Insurance
    MRI is an insurance policy that provides financial protection for home loan borrowers and their families. Specifically, MRI helps settle outstanding home loan amounts in the event of death or total disablement of the borrowers.
    Generally, in the event of untimely death or disability of a home loan borrower (significantly if he or she is the main income earner), the greatest problem facing surviving households is their ability to pay off the remaining home loan. In many instances, the surviving family members may even need to sell off the property at less-than-competitive price just to pay off the outstanding amount.
    By signing up for MRI, surviving family members will not be left with such burden because MRI covers part or the entire unpaid portion of a home loan.

  • General Insurance

    What is Sum Insured?

    Sum insured is the amount of money that an insurance company is obligated to cover in the event of a covered loss.

    What is an Excess/Deductible?

    Excess/Deductible is the first part of a claim amount which has to be borne by the insured. In other words, fixed amount or percentage of an insurance claim that is the responsibility of the insured, and which the insurance company will deduct from the claim payment. Sometimes Excess/deductibles are voluntary (to qualify for a lower premium rate) but usually they are imposed by the insurer to avoid paying a large number of small claims.

    The main purpose of excess/deductible is usually to make the insured his/her own insurer for the specified amount of the excess, thus perhaps encouraging greater care.

    Types of Excesses

    a) Compulsory Excesses: is an excess amount which is imposed by insurers. A compulsory excess generally, may not be deleted even if the insured wants. Compulsory excess include standard excess, young and inexperienced driver excess, fire and theft excess as well as breakage of glass excess. 

    b) Voluntary Excess: is an excess which is voluntarily accepted by the insured over and above the compulsory excess to obtain discount in premium.

    What is a contribution?

    The principle of contribution entails that two or more insurers each liable for a covered loss should participate in the payment of that loss. Having paid its share of a loss, an insurer may be entitled to equitable contribution—a legal right to recover part of the payment from another insurer whose policy was also applicable.

    What is No Claim Discount?

    No claim discount is the feature of private as well as commercial policies. No claim discount (NCD) is reward granted to policyholders who have not made a claim up on their policy during the preceding period of insurance, normally twelve months.

    No claim discount is the feature of private as well as commercial policies. No claim discount (NCD) is reward granted to policyholders who have not made a claim up on their policy during the preceding period of insurance, normally twelve months.No claim discount is the feature of private as well as commercial policies. No claim discount (NCD) is reward granted to policyholders who have not made a claim up on their policy during the preceding period of insurance, normally twelve months.

    What is an Insurable Interest?

    The insured must be in a legal relationship between the subject matter of insured and the financial loss.  This is to avoid people insuring the property of others and then collecting insurance money should anything happen, through their own machination.
    Typically, insurable interest is established by ownership, possession, or direct relationship. For example, people have insurable interests in their own homes and vehicles, but not in their neighbors' homes and vehicles, and almost certainly not those of strangers.
    Whosoever effect insurance policy for own benefit should be one who stands to suffer financial loss if the insured event takes place.  Insurable interest constitutes the legal right to insure arising out of a financial relationship recognized at law between the insured and the subject matter of insurance.  In the absence of insurable interest requirement, if people were free to insure for their own benefit whoever and whatever pleases them, it would have been an open invitation to the unscrupulous to commit a host of serious crimes with the view to the realization of profit. Situation is clearly not in the public interest or is out of Public Policy.
    Insurable interest is created when one stands in relationship with some subject matter whereby the benefits from its safety and prejudiced from its loss/destruction.  One can also insure for an amount not greater than the value of his interest.
    An example of how insurable interest is created is given below:
     
    Life Insurance- No monetary value is placed on human life.  The extent of insurable interest on ones owns life has no limit.  But when one insures the life of another is different.  As per Ethiopian Commercial Code a person can insure the life of another but only with the consent of the person to be insured both as to the assurance and amount of assurance;

    • A creditor or guarantor can insure the life of debtor to the extent of loan and interest
    • A partner can insure the life of his partner to the extent of the latter's financial interest.
    • An employer has insurable interest in the life of his employees to the extent of possible financial loss or legal liability.

     
    Property Insurance- absolute owner has insurable interest to the extent of financial value of the property.

    • Mortgages - Lender has insurable interest in the property to the extent of the loan and any interest.
    • Persons holding goods in trust for others and where they are responsible for the safe keeping of goods either by law or by contract such as carriers, hoteliers, laundries, warehouseman etc. can insure to the extent of the value
    • An agent can insure property on behalf of his principal
    • A joint owner of property can insure for full value of property financial interest, as does so an agent for the other part of joint owner

     
    Liability Insurance- amount of liability can't usually be known in advance.  Recover under the policy is limited to the award even where the limit of policy per the policy is greater.
    In majority cases, the existence of insurable interest in non-life insurance must exist at the time of loss, not necessarily at inception.  Non-Life policies are contracts of indemnity and a person can be indemnified only if loss is incurred.  Insurable interest need only exist at inception in the case of life policy since life policy is not a contract of indemnity.

An overview

Nyala Insurance Share Company (NISCO) was founded in July 1995 following the liberalization of the insurance business to the private sector in 1994 with the Licensing and Supervision of Insurance Business Proclamation No. 85/1994. Read more...

Investments

Apart from its major investments in real estates in the downtowns of Addis Ababa, Bahir Dar and Nazareth, Nyala Insurance selectively invests in various financial institutions like Dashen Bank, which have potentially high investment returns. Read more...

Links

Contact us

Protection House, Mickey Leland Street

Tel: +251-11-6626679/80/76

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