Ethical Foundations of Insurance Practice in Nigeria: A Normative and Empirical Investigation

This dissertation undertakes a combined normative philosophical and empirical sociological investigation of the ethical foundations of insurance practice in Nigeria. Insurance as a social institution depends on ethical norms including good faith, uberrimae fidei, fair dealing, equitable claims treatment, and honest risk disclosure, yet the systematic application of these norms in Nigerian practice is contested by evidence of widespread misrepresentation, fraud, and discriminatory practices. The normative dimension of this study applies applied ethics methodology, drawing on deontological, consequentialist, and virtue ethics frameworks to articulate a coherent ethics of insurance provision appropriate to the Nigerian social and economic context. The empirical dimension employs a sequential mixed-methods design with a national survey of 500 insurance practitioners measuring moral disengagement mechanisms, perceived ethical climate, and observed unethical practice frequency, followed by 60 in-depth interviews exploring ethical reasoning processes in complex practice scenarios. Moral disengagement theory (Bandura) and institutional ethics theory provide the theoretical framework for empirical analysis. Quantitative analysis uses confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The study produces an original Insurance Ethics Framework for Nigeria (IEFN) that integrates normative and empirical findings into a coherent professional ethics architecture. Keywords: Insurance Ethics, Uberrimae Fidei, Moral Disengagement, Professional Ethics, Nigeria.