CHI rewards winners in insurance education essay

Consolidated Hallmark Insurance (CHI) Plc has rewarded three winners at its yearly national essay competition.

The reward is part of the company’s efforts to encourage insurance education and awareness creation across the country.

The competition saw Korede Amole from the Insurance Department of the Federal Polytechnic, Offa, Kwara State, emerged as the overall winner of the 2018 edition, with a prize of N250, 000, and an opportunity of getting employed by the insurer after graduation.

Similarly, Balogun Obabiolorunkosi of the Insurance Department of the Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, emerged second and was rewarded with N150,000, while Ernest Orjieh from University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, came third with a prize of N100,000.

Giving his assessment of the whole exercise at the Awards ceremony held at the company’s head office in Lagos recently, Bayo Samagbaye, who was an assessor for the competition, said the entries submitted for the 2018 national essay competition were of low quality compared to the previous entries.

Although he attributed this to a drop in standard of education in the country, he urged the lecturers to groom their students very well so that they become ready-made materials for the labour market by the time they graduate.

He equally charged students to up their game and focus more on their studies so that they can graduate with good grades.

Earlier, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of CHI, Eddie Efekoha said the competition was part of the company’s contribution to the overall insurance industry’s awareness creation as well as enhance skilled personnel for the insurance sector.

The competition, he said, had its maiden edition in 2011, based on the insurer’s belief in developing talents and expanding the industry knowledge, while encouraging research.

Efekoha, who is also the President, Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), said this is the company’s token to bridge the knowledge gap while promising to work closely with CIIN to enhance skilled manpower for the insurance industry.

He said that the current crop of students is expectedly going to manage the insurance industry in the near future and must, therefore, be properly schooled on the tasks ahead.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Ogbonna Benedetta, who represented the Commissioner for Insurance, Mohammed Kari, at the event, applauded the management of Consolidated Hallmark for the initiative.

Kari stated that this would spread the gospel of insurance, while deepening insurance education among students, in the long run.

He also called on insurance firms to emulate CHI so that together, operators can grow the industry better, deepen insurance penetration, increase industry’s profitability.