PM asks NIC creditors to be patient

Prime Minister Edward Lowassa

PREMIER Edward Lowassa has called on people owed by the National Insurance Corporation (NIC) to be patient as the government was working to revamp the company and later privatize it.

Mr Lowassa told a public rally at Mbebe area in Ileje District, Mbeya region that the corporation was heavily indebted after failing to pay its customers.

He was responding to a question by a teacher, Mr Kabuje Lusibiliage, who said he had not been paid by NIC for many years after his policy had matured.

“NIC is facing financial crisis at the moment and there are so many people who are owed. We tried to privatize it but there are just too many problems with the corporation”, he said.

Mr Lowassa said that at the moment the government was taking measures to revamp the corporation so that it could be privatized while the government continued to have a say in its day to day operations.

However, the prime minister did not mention the amount of money that the corporation owes its customers and the measures that it was taking to revamp it.