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By Henry Uche, Lagos
The Group Managing Director/CEO of Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc, Eddie Efekoha, yesterday assumed office as the 40th President of the West African Insurance Companies Association (WAICA).
He took the oath of office at the closing dinner marking the 50th Anniversary of the Association held in Lagos.
Efekoha succeeded Mr. George Mensah who has served his tenure as WAICA President.
Eddie Efekoha is a boardroom guru and a seasoned insurance professional who has been the head of seven different companies and presently holds the position of Chairman of Grand Treasurers Ltd., Chairman at CHI Micro Insurance Ltd. and Chief Executive Officer/Group Managing Director of Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc, Chairman, Hallmark Health Services Ltd.,(a subsidiary of Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc). Mr Efekoha is also on the board of the Nigeria Insurance Association.
He was previously Chairman of the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director at Fountain Insurance Brokers Ltd., President & Chairman-Governing Council at Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria and Executive Vice Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at Consolidated Risk Insurers Ltd.
He has worked with leading Insurance Brokerage firms in top executive positions including Hogg Robinson Nigeria, Glanvill Enthoven & Co (Nig.) and Fountain Insurance Brokers as pioneer MD/CEO.
Efekoha is the immediate past President of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN). An authority in business administration and a Fellow of the Nigerian and United Kingdom Institutes.
At the same conference, WAICA approved the appointment of Mr Davis Ebelechukwu Iyasere as the new Secretary General/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the sub-regional body.
His appointment followed the retirement of the immediate past Secretary General/CEO, Mr William Coker.
With this appointment, Iyasere becomes the first Nigerian to occupy the exalted position in WAICA’s 50 years of existence.
Prior to his appointment, Iyasere was the deputy director in charge of Corporate Communications, Human Resources, and Administration at the Nigerian Insurers Association(NIA) where he had a career spanning almost two decades.
Whilst in the services of the Association, he was noted for his dedication to duty and commitment to the ideals of the association.
He joined the Association as Corporate Affairs Manager in 2004 and rose through the ranks to his current position through a dint of hard work, strength of character, pursuit of excellence, humility, and strong intellectual capacity.
Iyasere started his career as a freelance sports journalist with Vanguard Newspapers and later with National Times Newspaper before he joined the Guardian newspapers as a sub-editor in the year 2000. He later joined Sporting Champion, then Nigeria’s highest-selling weekly sports newspaper from where he joined the Nigerian Insurers Association as corporate affairs manager in 2004.
He had his secondary education at Comprehensive high school Igbodo, in Ika North East local government area of Delta state and was the Senior Prefect during his time.
He later proceeded to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Ogba, Lagos for a professional diploma in Journalism. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Arts from the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom state with a second-class upper division and was the president of the Faculty of Arts Students Association (FASA).
His unquenchable quest for knowledge led him to pursue a master’s degree in communication studies from Lagos State University. Not satisfied, he proceeded to the University of Lagos where he obtained a second master’s degree in industrial and labour relations.
He is currently pursuing a doctorate degree in Public Relations at Babcock University, Ilishan, Ogun State.
He is widely travelled and belongs to many professional bodies and associations: Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Advertising Practitioners Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON), Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM), Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), USA, and Association of Corporate Governance Professionals of Nigeria.
The West African Insurance Companies Association (WAICA) is the umbrella Association of Insurance and Reinsurance companies as well as brokers in Anglophone West Africa.
As Secretary General/CEO, he will oversee the activities of insurance institutions in Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia, while he will operate from the Association’s secretariat in Accra, Ghana.
