Nigerian insurance industry has agreed to put into codes a ten year blueprint to serve as a road-map for the National Insurance Commission and operators to overhaul and reposition the industry strategically.
Briefing journalists after the meeting of the Insurance Committee yesterday in Lagos, the Vice-Chairman, Publicity Sub-Committee, Mr. Segun Omosehin, said that was the key to fulfil the aspirations of all stakeholders and going forward all the associations in the industry have been asked to nominate their members who will constitute a committee that includes the Commission that will prepare the draft document.
Omosehin said there was need for an industry-wide strategic plan, set in a strategic document with codes that will serve stakeholders interests within a given period of ten years.
“The need for a strategic plan is to enable us as an industry has codified strategic initiatives that will be implemented over a given period of ten years. This will help the successive leadership that comes in so that there are no vacuum. It helps guide the action of leadership in terms of what we want to achieve as industry. It keeps us in focus. That is what the strategic document is meant to do for the industry and it will cut across the entire gamut of the industry from underwriting to broking to adjusting. It is going to be a ten-year plan,” Omosehin explained.
The new ten year industry-wide plan replaces the sectoral NIA ten year plan put in place under the consultancy watch of KPMG to among other things reposition NIA members, build stronger companies and deepen penetration and grow aggressively the overall premium. According to the immediate past chairman Ganiyu Musa in an explanation on this in another place in another time, the NIA had specific numbers that “we targeted over the period. Our focus had been on the levels of premiums that we needed to pool. To achieve this Musa said the Association identified a few pillars- strengthening the industry, training which would involve collaboration with College of Insurance and Financial Management on one hand and achieve same with National Insurance Commission within the space of development of skills that are in short supply for instance, actuarial analyst and it is a major focus of our industry development plan.
Musa’ explanation in another event before the Insurance Committee Meeting noted that NIA was collaborating with NAICOM for the orderly development of the bancassurance channel. It was also involved he stated in the whole gamut of insurtech within the fintech industry an area he said NIA was keeping an eye on. Besides these ticks, the issue of creating new capital levels had settled in and squared having received the boost from Finance Act 2021.
Now its an industry wide thing encompassing other bodies in the industry and the regulator, NAICOM. The new man on the NIA bloc Omosehin, said the all embracing industry’s proposed strategic document is to help each successive leader that comes in pursue an in.ustry agenda that serves the interests of whole industry, For example, two year term of Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) chairman under the broad span industry code should pursue an initiative that complements ant not at variance with a wider industry-wide initiative; this he emphasised, helps every leader to achieve an industry-wide objective.
Also speaking on the document, a member of the committee, and Head, Corporate Communication and Market Development, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Mr. Rasaaq Salami, said NAICOM as a regulator, will be part of the plan which, according to him, will cover the various associations in the industry.
Mr. Omosehin said other decision was taken at the meeting to revise guidelines on bancassurance and prepare the fountain to flow into the watershed of insurance underwriting.
“We received some cheery news that regulator is likely to release some new guidelines on Bancassurance. Some elements in the guidelines are being reviewed and so we are hopeful and looking forward to some revised role on the operations of bancassurance,” he said.
