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By Henry Uche
With the emergence of the Managing Director/CEO of Old Mutual Nigeria Life Assurance, Olusegun Omosehin, as the 25th Chairman of the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), stakeholders in the insurance industry have set agenda for the president toward the advancement of the insurance industry.
Omosehin who was recently elected alongside other principal officers at the Association’s 51st Annual General Meeting held in Lagos, was urged by the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) to always see themselves as cooperators rather than competitors in order to project an acceptable image before the insuring public.
NCRIB also called for professionalism among practitioners in the industry as a way forward towards achieving insurance penetration, trust and increased policy subscription by the public which would translates into economic growth and development of Nigeria.
NCRIB’s President, Mr. Rotimi Edu, made this known during the Council’s delegate visit to NIA office in Lagos. In his speech, Mr. Edu noted that the industry’s craving for cohesion and professionalism for effective service delivery to the public could only be achieved if members of NCRIB accelerate their collaboration with underwriters .
“Revitalisation of the various Joint and Technical Committees of the industry is being put on the front burner to facilitate effective sharing of information between our two unique professional in the industry,”
Reacting, the outgoing Chairman of NIA, Mr. Ganiu Musa, charged the NIA’s new president to be strong and focused even in the face of glaring economic hardship. He pledged the readiness of the NIA to cooperate with Insurance Brokers body to reenergize the Joint Technical Committee, noting that no effort should be spared in exchanging information with a view to making the industry vibrant and contribute to the national economy.
In his acceptance speech, Omosehin sought the support of every stakeholders in the industry in his quest to drive change in the industry through self-regulation and enforcement of market conduct to enable the insurance industry take its rightful place amongst the pillars of economic growth and prosperity. This, he assured, would enable insurers earn the trust of Nigerians to address the issues affecting the operators.
“The change we seek must start with us as an industry. We must strengthen our capacity to self-regulate and be bold and courageous in enforcing our market conducts. This will enable us as an industry take our rightful place amongst the pillars of economic growth and development in Nigeria.
“We must understand the importance of protecting our collective dreams and aspirations and positioning ourselves appropriately to earn the trust of our nation. A lot of work has been done in this regard by successive leadership of the association leading to national recognition for our industry, but much more is still required to be done. This trust would be earned through our demonstration of capacity, competence, integrity, and conscientiousness”. He promised to work with the insurance industry regulator among other stakeholders in unpacking solutions that works for a developing country like Nigeria and assured that member companies will comply with extant regulations that will promote growth in the sector.
“We shall assuringly work closely with NAICOM in all areas, particularly in unpacking solutions that works for a developing market like Nigeria and in ensuring compliance with all extant regulations that will promote the growth and development of our industry.
“We shall collaborate with other arms of the insurance industry such as the Nigeria Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB); the Institute of Loss Adjusters of Nigeria (ILAN), the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), Association of Registered Insurance Agents of Nigeria (ARIAN), and others, to achieve our goal of a prosperous insurance industry. “Our founding fathers laid a strong foundation for the Association, thus, we shall build on these achievements and we shall focus more on areas requiring improvements. We shall encourage members to deploy innovation to increase acceptability, accessibility, availability, adequacy and affordability of insurance products and services, then can we fulfil our promise of protecting the lives and dreams of our customers,” he assured.
