By Matthew Denis

A Non Governmental organization – Prudential Zenith Life Insurance in partnership with Red Cross and the Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC) in reducing road crashes to minimum level in the country.

Data made available by FRSC indicates that there was a 14% decrease in road crashes, a 14% reduction in injured victims, and a 15.5% decrease in fatalities in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. Specifically, 5,700 road traffic crashes were recorded, resulting in 2,850 fatalities and 16,716 injured victims.

Speaking at the Safe Steps Road safety campaign stakeholders engagement meeting held in Abuja on Wednesday,
the Chief Transformation and Strategy Officer of Prudential Zenith Life Insurance, Mrs. Cherice Ige said ” what we intend to achieve here is making the lives of Nigerians better as a life insurance company we see the deaths of Nigerians everyday and it’s our core duty that we should to reduce it.

“This is one of the campaigns, advocate that we can make the lives of Nigerians better because we’ll not benefits as a an insurance company but to cover less dead claims and have the lives of Nigerians community lives longer.

Mrs. Ige emphasized that they have wide range of Corporate social responsibility programmes but this partnership with Red Cross and government agencies is very crucial to ensure traffic rules are obeyed by road users in the country to reduce road crashes.

According her they are expecting that the awareness campaigns touching the lives of parents, children and grandparents at the grassroots for impactful results.

She revealed that the flag off of the Programme will commences in Lagos with 16.5million people and Abuja with 4 million people to ensure safety of their lives.

The Managing Director of Red Cross Nigeria, Dr. Usman Emmanuel Bassi stressed that the core end of the project is to enlighten the general public especially road users and stakeholders in the transportation sector on road safety.

He reiterated that they are working closely with the Prudential Zenith Life Insurance to provide the necessary awareness and training for major stakeholders on the road sector.

” Averagely, we see that 2.1million road crashes happened in the country with FCT Abuja and Lagos on high level which we’re starting with these locations to curb the situation after which we can cast it down to other states of the Federation.

The Managing Director posited that on their part as red Cross they are reassuring provision of basic first aid and training for drivers since they’re the first contact during accident cases.

He revealed that the programme will be flagged off in the two major cities for six months between January to June, 2025

The Representative of the Corp Marshall, Corp Commander Danladi Boyi Apaji said ” crashes can be prevented but in Nigeria context the negligences of drivers is responsible for high rates of road crashes in the country.

“Sometimes we feel that road crashes cannot happen to us and we always relax therefore we’re working collaboratively to reduce these roads crashes.

He explained that the safe steps roads safety’ is in tune with their core mandate to safe lives and properties in the country therefore they’re ready to partner with any organization to combat the situation.

While acknowledging the life insurance company for the initiative he called on the public to adhere strictly on the road traffic signs to reduce accidents rate in the country.