L-R: Past Chairman, Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), Mr Eddie Efekoha; Director-General/CEO, NIA, Mrs. Yetunde Ilori, and Chairman, NIA, Mr. Tope Smart, at the 48th annual general meeting of NIA in Lagos.
BY NKECHI NAECHE––The volume of business written by operators in Nigeria insurance industry rose to N400bn in 2018 from N363billion recorded in 2017.The Chairman, Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), Mr. Tope Smart disclosed this during the association’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) held yesterday in Lagos. The chairman who also doubles as GMD of NEM Insurance Plc also said that the industry paid a total of N160.5 billion claims to its claimants in 2018.He explained further that the insurers settled N142.83 billion claims in 2017, while life insurers paid N72.31 billion, non life operators paid N70.52 billion.
The NIA Boss added that the association is working closely with the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) to promote the business of insurance and increase its contributions to national Gross Domestic Product (GDP)He said: “some of the initiatives include the insurance industry rebranding project; regulation on micro insurance; collaboration on financial inclusion; bancassurance guidelines and others which will impact positively on the business of insurance companies.”
On challenges confronting business environment, he lamented that power outage, failure to abolish or amend CITA 2007 remain huge burden for the insurance companies.
“Growing Herdsmen/Farmers clashes across the country, insurgency and armed banditry in the North, rising cases of kidnapping, armed robbery and other violent crimes as well the internecine communal clashes in some states all combined to negatively affect the bottom line of many insurance companies”.
Also, the Director-General of the association, Mrs. Yetunde Ilori, noted that in a bid to encourage good relationship with the insuring public, the Customer Compliant Bureau established by the association has effectively resolved over 40 conflicts received from policyholders and 30 between member companies.
She assured that the association is assiduously working to reduce complaints from policyholders to a minimal, stressing that this has encouraged confidence of the insuring public.
