BY PRECIOUS ADI
The National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, has said that the country is likely to attain a sustained economic growth and development if it can adapt its insurance industry with innovative ways that will bring on board the generality of the country’s population.
Mr.Fola Daniel, the Commissioner for Insurance, said that NAICOM incepted the Market Development and Restructuring Initiative (MDRI) in 2009 to enforce compulsory insurances and eradicate fake insurances in the country.
Daniel said, “This initiative has been vigorously pursued by the Commission across the six geo-political zones of the country. We are not hesitant to solicit support in the implementation of compulsory insurances in Nigeria especially as regards insurances of buildings and assets.”
He also stated that the Nigerian insurance industry has witnessed tremendous changes in recent times owing to the new reforms embarked upon by NAICOM.
“These reforms include the introduction of Risk Based Supervision, migration to International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) from the Nigerian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (NGAAP); Market Conduct Reforms, Claims Settlement Reforms, Financial Inclusion, etc, all geared towards developing the industry and improving the general perception about insurance,” Daniel said.
“Suffice it to say that these reforms are in line with the Federal Government’s vision 2020:20 of deepening insurance penetration to become the insurance industry of choice among the emerging markets in terms of capacity, safety, transparency and efficiency.”
Daniel stated that in order to ensure adequate understanding and build capacity amongst the stakeholders, the Commission did resolve to conduct series of workshops and seminars for all stakeholders.
Having also recognised the urgent need to develop the retail insurance market which has remained grossly untapped considering the vast population of the country, Daniel said it became imperative for the Commission to incorporate micro-insurance and Takaful as important vehicles for achieving greater insurance penetration in the country.
“NAICOM recently released the Takaful Guidelines to the market and now is ready for implementation. Preparatory to the commencement of the operation of the guidelines, the Commission has embarked on a series of capacity building programmes for its management and technical staff in order to position the commission to effectively implement and supervise takaful operation in Nigeria..
“As part of our continuing efforts at protecting the interest of policyholders, the Commission indeed strengthened its Complaints Bureau Unit. The human and material capacity of the unit has been substantially enhanced to meet with the challenges of dealing with complaints emanating from the public against the industry promptly and professionally.” He said.
