By Bisi Bamishe
The Chairman, Geometric Power Limited and former Nigerian Minister of Power, Professor Barth Nnaji will be a Special Guest of Honour at the forthcoming SUPERNEWS Conference and 10th Anniversary scheduled for July 7, 2026.
The conference, with the theme: ‘Local Content & Digitisation: Building Synergy Between Oil & Gas and Insurance Sectors for Inclusive Growth’ will be held at Oriental Hotel, 3, Lekki Road, Victoria Island, Lagos at 10.00 am prompt.
The Commissioner for Insurance, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Mr. Olusegun Ayo Omosehin has confirmed his attendance at the conference which will bring together other regulators, key stakeholders in the oil & gas and insurance sectors, civil society organisations, media and students, among others.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Universal Insurance Plc, Dr. Jeff Duru will chair the conference while the Group Managing Director/CEO, Royal Exchange Plc, Mrs. Idu Okeahialam will deliver the keynote paper.
The Publisher, SUPERNEWS Nigeria, Ngozi Onyeakusi, said the choice of this year’s theme was borne out of the quest to provide insight on how the two sectors, insurance and oil & gas, can leverage on cutting-edge technologies to boost collaboration and synergy towards surmounting challenges associated in implementing the Provisions of Sections 49 and 50 of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act.
For instance, provisions of Sections 49 and 50 of the NOGICD Act requires all operators engaged in any form of activity or project in the oil and gas industry to insure all insurable risks related to its oil and gas business with an insurance company, through an insurance broker registered in Nigeria.
The NOGICD Act also provides that where an operator seeks to place an insurable risk offshore, a written approval of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) must first be sought and obtained and that NAICOM, prior to the issuance of the approval, must first determine that local capacity has been fully exhausted.
In a bid to smoothen the implementation and compliance to the Act, the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and NAICOM in 2022 launched the relevant guidelines which was expected to address the loopholes that were identified in implementing the provisions of the Act, particularly, Sections 49 and 50.
However, research has shown that insurance firms before now still faced lots of challenges ranging from capital inadequacy and others.
With the birth of the Nigeria Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) 2025, the insurance industry is now positioned for global competitiveness while the ongoing recapitalisation exercise is expected to pave way for big, strong and reliable insurance firms.
