Outgoing CIIN President Highlights Achievements

By Sola Alabadan

The outgoing President/Chairman in Council of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), Mrs Yetunde Ilori, has confirmed that the CIIN was a major participant in the move to ensure that the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA 2025) became a reality, after the industry had been operating with outdated law for decades.

Mrs. Ilori, who stated this at the virtual press conference with members of the Nigerian Association of Insurance and Pension Editors (NAIPE) to mark the end of her tenure on Tuesday, pointed out that the new law is expected to lead to quantum growth for the Nigerian insurance industry.

On assumption of office, she came with a theme which was “Igniting the Bedrock of our Envisioned Industry” and that was implemented under the agenda of ‘EPIC’, where E stands for Education, P for Professionalism, I for Institutional and Individual Recognitions and C for Capacity Building.

She stated that “I came in with a clear intention to make a difference because I think in any form of leadership, that is what matters. For you to come into position, and then when you are leaving the question will be asked: What did you achieve? Or who and who have you impacted?”

Under Education, she informed that the institute moved beyond the industry “to create awareness that will deepen penetration, to get people knowledgeable about the concept of insurance that will help them in making decision to purchase insurance cover that will benefit them, and to also position insurance as the financial strength of the entire economy”.

“To help us with this we came up with the Insurance Week. Under Insurance Week, there were a number of initiatives that came with it that took us beyond just ourselves having meetings, but included Market Outreach, Public Engagement, including NAIPE members helping us to publicise the programmes; we had School Engagements”.

“We also engaged the youths because one of the things that is certain is that we believe that the future belongs to the youths and the future is now and we found a way to tell them that insurance is not about a specific people, is a profession of even tomorrow, not just yesterday and to let them know that they have opportunity they can latch on to, to progress their career and so we had the hackathon where we brought students, insurance practitioners, non-insurance practitioners; it was a combination of insurance, technology and innovation that met and they came up with solution people are looking at and they are developing it on their own. We just showed them that there are opportunities in many areas.

In addition to visiting secondary schools and tertiary institutions to create the needed awareness about insurance, she stated that the institute came up with the publication of two books – one for ages four to 10 and another for ages 11 to 16.
“Even though the books are said to be dedicated to these age groups, she maintained that anybody without knowledge of insurance can also read it. The book is entitled insurance for beginners where beginners can be anybody. We are distributing these in schools. The way people are receiving it has been very encouraging and very interesting,” she stressed.

In order to get the youths knowledgeable about insurance, the CIIN intends to train one million youths so that they can understand insurance and take decision either to become insurance practitioners, or to sell insurance, or to buy insurance or to help people that will buy insurance.

She also mentioned that “There was a time some bodies in the financial sector were put together under the Financial Literacy Enhancement and insurance was left out. We have to get in touch with the office of the Vice President and now insurance has been included and we are not left out even in their own curriculum”.

Mrs Ilori further hinted that the industry is working with the federal government and telling people who are necessary that insurance is a course that must be inculcated from the very beginning of life.

Besides, she said that the institute took education and awareness creation to the board level, noting that the Insurance Directors’ Conference organised by the CIIN were well attended.