Barely three weeks into office the new top echelon of the National Insurance Commission for the first time since the Commission was establishment, has hit the road leading to the different operators operations engine rooms, to listen and engage. The Commission in course of the tour visited the headquarters of the Institute of Loss Adjusters of Nigeria ILAN, where the Commissioner for Insurance, Olusegun Omosehin unambiguously let the loss adjusters know that they are critical in building public confidence in insurance.
Omosehin with the reinforced presence of two Executive Directors and the helmsman of the Commission Lagos Control Office put forward the Commission present vision to make public confidence in insurance the hallmark of the market operations. He digs deep, “In building confidence in the Nigerian public it means claims settlement is critical. It involves the turnaround time it takes to pay; and even the efficiency involved in that entire value chain, revolves around those of us seated here” by this resting it heavily on loss adjusters.
Coupling the Commission into this significant area of focus, the CFI said, “It therefore becomes critical that for us as a regulator we would get input from you in putting our vision together. We don’t want to assume that we know it all. We want to hear from you.”
“In crafting the strategy that will drive the current new executive its important that we have this one on one to listen to your views, perspectives, insights and possibly give us top three priorities which from our perspective is key to seeing a virile insurance sector. a sector that can really de-risk this economy. In doing this it behoves on all of us across the entire sector to play our part.
The President of ILAN, Diipo Olarenwaju while heeding to public confidence building responsibility, reminded the Commissioner for Insurance that there are still hurdles too difficult for loss adjusters to leap over. First in the line he reminded Omosehin, is the issue of insurance companies adamant to the review of the 32 year old scale of fees, “We have approached our principals to let them reason with us for a review.” However, he asserts that “nothing significant has emerged, we have not received anything concrete only promise but not officially communicated to us.”
He said if the issue was not arrested soon it might lead to the extinction of the loss adjusting arm. Already, he said the sector is loosing their well trained staff to insurance companies because they cannot pay to keep them and the non review of the scale of fees and sundry issues like delay in paying loss adjusters fees even after the claim has been paid, all together make it impossible to match the pay cheque of insurance brokers and insurance firms.
He also asked for the intervention of the Commission when the yet to be treated issue of Charter comes up again. Olarenwaju said forces beyond the control of ILAN will not allow loss adjusters have their Charter through the legal process of the National Assembly.
