Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen.
It gives me great pleasure to address this gathering this morning. On behalf of the National
Insurance Commission and the entire insurance industry I will like to appreciate NAIPCO
for all its efforts at creating the needed awareness and enlighting the public on the
importance and relevance of insurance to daily living.
Your Association has made tremendous achievements in these areas and we can only ask
for more as good work will always attract more work.
On our part as the regulatory arm of the insurance industry we will continue to collaborate
with your association for capacity building for your members and a sustainable reach to the
public on the various aspects of Insurance activities in Nigeria.
The timing of this Workshop could not have been more auspicious in view of the fact that
the Commission is rolling out various initiatives with the main objective of deepening and
broading insurance penetration in the country.
It has become a common saying that Insurance is underperforming in Nigeria, with dismal
percentages and unflattering comparisons trotted out to reinforce this position. While one
may not disagree that the industry is performing less than optimal potential, the insurance
industry has not been static. All our indices have grown steadily though at a slow pace over
the past few years.
The gross premium as at the third quarter was N315 billion, a 22% increase over the
N258billion for 2017 in the same period. The Gross claim figure for third quarter 2018 was
N143 billion, a 30% increase over the N110 billion reported for the same period in 2017. We
anticipate the final figures for 2018 to be significant indeed.
The outlook may not be as rosy as we all would have liked but NAICOM sees the silver
lining and is fully committed to making the most of it. We have set for ourselves a clear,
unambiguous task: to improve the aggregate numbers by enabling individual operators to
optimally serve a much larger customer pool with a more varied basket of products. The end
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game for us is to increase the insurance uptake ratio among the Nigerian populace and we
have a number of initiatives in place towards achieving this.
Financial inclusion is one of the tools we envisage to help us improve market penetration.
The initiative is premised on the fact that getting the mass of the financially excluded to
embrace insurance in one form or another will have a positive impact. Accordingly,
insurance companies are being encouraged to have a buyin into our microinsurance
initiatives for the Nigerian market. The Takaful market is still grossly under accessed by the
public, there is therefore the need for aggressive promotion in aid of financial inclusion.
In addition, efforts are being made to expand the distribution channels for insurance
products because the traditional channels are becoming too restrictive and suboptimal.
Whereas Bancassurance has received the most attention, there are other initiatives to reach
out to the public.
The Commission has developed a guideline for the creation of State Insurance Producers
(SIP). It is expected that State Governments participation in enforcement of compulsory
classes of insurance will enhance compliance and deeping of the market. States will in the
process creat employment and enhance their internally generated revenue.
NAICOM fully appreciates the necessity of having insurers that can safely carry the risks
they underwrite. As such Risk-Based Supervision is being adopted as a regulatory tool
because it is proactive and addresses the key issues of corporate governance, risk
management, capital adequacy and others. We are also exploring ways to ensure that
insurance companies are adequately capitalized to enhance their risk-bearing capacities.
This was the thinking behind the capital initiative of the Commission .
Achievements of the goal that we have set for ourselves is predicated on the market’s ability
to attract business and customers need to have confidence in operators. To this end,
NAICOM has championed an industry-wide rebranding project to burnish our reputation, but
we cannot do it alone. The support of the media especially those of you here, under the
aegis of the National Association of Insurance and Pension Correspondents (NAIPCO), is
crucial.
How can the media help us going forward? The agenda-setting role of the media makes
it a formidable ally to have for any social engineering effort to succeed. We therefore urge
you ladies and gentlemen to partner NAICOM to clear the cobwebs of misconception about
insurance among the populace and propagate the necessity and usefulness of insurance in
life and in business. Insurance, like any other business needs a positive image. As the
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regulator, NAICOM issues policy directives and guidelines from time to time; we need all the
publicity you can give us on all our initiatives. We appreciate the role of the press as
society’s watchdog and we value feedback from you.
At NAICOM we place a high premium on market information and we are open to
suggestions on how we can assist the media perform its role more effectively either by
facilitating skills enhancement among media professionals or in any other mutually
beneficial ways.
Finally, I would like to reiterate that NAICOM is very much alive to its responsibilities. We
seek rewarding partnerships and engagements to enable us successfully meet our goals.
The media has been a good partner and we hope to build further on our existing relationship
with you.
Do have fruitful deliberations today. Thank you
