The Commissioner for Insurance, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Mr Sunday Thomas (pictured) has set agenda for the 25th Chairman of the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), Mr Olusegun Omosehin, not to look away from the “vexed issues of settlement of claims” and also explore available bilateral windows in engaging the Commission.
These were part of the cocktail of actions to expect presented to insurers at the investiture of the new NIA Chairman today at Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Weighing in on claims, Thomas urged “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.”
Thomas admitted that though the sector is beginning to experience improvement in terms of patronage and claims payout, the perception of the industry by majority is still not what it should be,” He did not mince words on how the Commission sees this, “This is unacceptable and it is high time we changed the narrative collectively as an industry.”
He therefore, made it an industry challenge to move out of the claim avoidance space. “We must all see this business as an interest that we must all protect and I again challenge the new leadership of the NIA to take on this task.”
He was also no less interested in the new leadership creating at all times, proper communication through whatever bilateral windows available.
Coming into the arena of development of the insurance market, he assured the market that “this cardinal objective has not changed.” He reiterated that the Commission has “vigorously been driving the issue of market development of compulsory insurances these past two years, achieving some gains in the process.”
He said this has been proven through efforts to partner state governments on enforcement of compulsory insurances and insurances of their assets. “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.”
Despite this response he assured the market that the Commission will not deflate efforts, rather, “will continue to support the insurance industry and specifically the operators to thrive by instituting policies that encourage equal access, investment of funds and healthy competition.”
On protection for all, Thomas said that its mandate “cuts across stakeholders with varying expectations thus, the need to implement far reaching initiatives to develop the market and expand the frontiers of the industry while guaranteeing the protection of each stakeholder to the best of our ability.”
