BY NKECHI NAECHE-ESEZOBOR— Segun Omoshein, the 25th Chairman of the
Nigerian Insurers Association ( NIA), has unveiled a 4-point agenda of his administration, focusing on market discipline, market development & respect for market agreements; insurance awareness & partnership with the Media; human capacity building and leverage technology, digital & innovation.
Omoshein, who unveiled the plan yesterday during his investiture in Lagos said, despite the challenges confronting the industry and the nation in general, his focus will be on expanding the frontiers of Insurance through Partnerships and Stakeholders’ Engagement.
On market discipline, market development & respect for market agreements, he said “we will collaborate with all players to enforce market discipline among member companies. As a Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO), the Association works through the peer pressure to promote best practice among operators.
“We will work very hard as leaders of the Association to build trust and lead by example, so that some of the issues relating to soft market practices and general indiscipline in the market are promptly dealt with.
“We shall ensure adherence to high ethical standards for our market which has been the pillars upon which the association was formed.”
He explained that NIA under his leadership will work with other stakeholders to:ensure enforcement of all compulsory insurances through effective collaboration with relevant agencies, implement progressive market development initiatives and agreements, explore new areas of business collaboration to expand the market and collaborate with the regulatory community particularly our primary regulator, NAICOM, on market impacting regulations such as Risk-Based Supervision, among others.
On insurance awareness & partnership with the media, Omoshein said, ” there is no doubt that we are convinced that insurance awareness level is still very low among the populace. I will work with all stakeholders to increase the awareness campaigns so that we can have more people in the insurance net. To this end, we will actively pursue the insurance awareness and publicity project under the auspices of the Insurers’ Committee.
He however assured that his leadership will be forging a stronger partnership with the media to significantly improve the image of the insurance industry in Nigeria and ultimately increase insurance awareness.
In the area of human capacity building, he said “in other to serve the market better and respond to the dynamics of a changing world, we will explore training opportunities to build capacity in critical areas of insurance business.
“We need to invest in human capital across the industry, embrace talent that would be beneficial to our core objective. We need to grow our talent pool from within and embrace openness in our industry. We shall partner in building actuarial capacity for the overall benefit of the market.
“Today, we are faced with security challenges such as kidnapping, banditry and outright terrorism. We are also contending with the after-effects of climate change such as flooding and related risks. We will take learnings from other markets that have the requisite experience in these areas of insurance business to improve our underwriting practices in these critical areas.”
On leverage technology, digital & innovation, he said: “the time has come for the industry to be deliberate in our investment in technology and innovation. Specifically, we shall: seek to leverage all the advantages that technology would provide in our quest to improve accessibility, affordability, adequacy, awareness and the availability of the right insurance products and services to the right customer.”
He added that the industry must embrace openness and willingness to collaborate with intra and extra-industry stakeholders (including Fintechs, Insuretechs, etc.) to drive customer centric models for penetrating the market.
He said the he will upgrade the digital capabilities of the NIA Secretariat to meet and respond to the growing demands of our public, adding that these should culminate in product and process innovation that meets our customers’ multi-dimensional needs.
“We must bear in mind that the world has evolved and so has our country. The ways and means of our economy, business environment, social fabric, norms, and communication. Whilst this provides massive opportunities for us, it also means that risk profiles have evolved. If we are to serve it adequately, we must evolve along – in our thinking, in our approach and in our intent.”
He however called for the maximum support and cooperation of other key industry stakeholders including the industry regulator, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), 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, in achieving our goal of a prosperous insurance industry.
In his keynote address, the Commissioner for Insurance, Sunday Thomas, charged the Nigeria Insures to deploy the principle of self regulation to tackle non claims payment and other similar issues that are capable of demarketing the industry.
“I want to also challenge the new leadership on the vexed issues of settlement of claims. I urge the new leadership to deploy the principle of self regulation to take a critical look into this and other similar issues that are capable of demarketing the industry.
‘You will all agree with me that though the sector is beginning to experience improvement in terms of patronage and claims payout, the perception of the industry by majority of the public is still not what it should be. This is unacceptable and it is high time we changed the narrative collectively as an industry. We must all see this business as an interest that we must all protect and I again challenge the new the new leadership of the NIA to take on this task.”
I want to equally advise the new leadership to at all times ensure proper communication in engaging the Commission through whatever bilateral windows available.
He also expressed misgivings over underwriters’ inability to harness opportunities created from its engagements with state governments in enforcing compulsory insurances.
He said the Commission under his leadership has vigorously been driving the issue of market development and enforcement of compulsory insurances these past two years and had achieved some gains in the process.
According to him, greater efforts have been made to partner state governments on enforcement of compulsory insurances and insurances of their assets and that the commission had embarked on this drive to till the ground while expecting the operators to take over and engage the markets but the response from the industry is less than satisfactory.
He assured the operators that the commission would continue to support the insurance industry and specifically the
operators/players to thrive by instituting policies that encourage equal access, investment of funds and healthy competition.
