By Sola Alabadan
The new Chairman of Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), Segun Omosehin, has assured that the association will be collaborating with all operators to enforce market discipline among member companies.
He gave this assurance during his investiture in Lagos recently.
He said “As a Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO), the Association works through the peer pressure to promote best practice among operators. We will work very hard as leaders of the Association to build trust and lead by example, so that some of the issues relating to soft market practices and general indiscipline in the market are promptly dealt with.”
Omosehin stressed that the NIA will ensure adherence to high ethical standards for the insurance market which has been the pillars upon which the association was formed.
He added that “the NIA, under my chairmanship, will work with other stakeholders to ensure enforcement of all compulsory insurances through effective collaboration with relevant agencies, as well as implement progressive market development initiatives and agreements.
Besides, he said the association will E
explore new areas of business collaboration to expand the market, while collaborating with the regulatory community particularly the National Insurance Commission, such as Risk-Based Supervision, among others.
In order to serve the market better and respond to the dynamics of a changing world, he promised that the NIA will explore training opportunities to build capacity in critical areas of insurance business.
“We need to invest in human capital across the industry, embrace talent that would be beneficial to our core objective. We need to grow our talent pool from within and embrace openness in our industry. We shall partner in building actuarial capacity for the overall benefit of the market.
“Today, we are faced with security challenges such as kidnapping, banditry and outright terrorism. We are also contending with the after-effects of climate change, such as flooding and related risks. We will take learnings from other markets that have the requisite experience in these areas of insurance business to improve our underwriting practices in these critical areas.”
Besides, he stated that the time has come for the industry to be deliberate in its investment in technology and innovation, saying “Specifically, we shall seek to leverage all the advantages that technology would provide in our quest to improve accessibility, affordability, adequacy, awareness and the availability of the right insurance products and services to the right customer.
The association will equally embrace openness and willingness to collaborate with intra and extra-industry stakeholders (including Fintechs, Insuretechs, etc.) to drive customer centric models for penetrating the market,as well as upgrade the digital capabilities of the NIA Secretariat to meet and respond to the growing demands of the insuring public, thereby meeting the multi-dimensional needs of the populace.
