IGI boss calls for co-operation of operators

…Pays N3.5b claims last year

IN a bid to take advantage of the untapped potential demands and stimulate business for operators in the insurance industry, the Group Managing Director of Industrial and General Insurance Plc, Rotimi Fashola, has said it was high time for the market players to come together as group and encourage healthy competition.

   Fashola also revealed that its organization (IGI) was pursuing a policy that would ensure prompt payment of claims and commissions, which he describes as bad blood for the insurance industry.

  Speaking at the members’ evening of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) in Lagos over the week, Fashola said IGI paid N3.5 billion as claims from 2014 till date.

  Fashola stated that all operators in the industry must collaborate and encourage healthy competition so as to achieve the demands in the industry.

  According to Fashola, the forum, which would serve as a platform for deliberations on critical issues in the industry, should have its chairmanship rotated yearly.

  Fashola revealed that its organization has also addressed a challenge caused by its international subsidiaries, which had prevented getting its account to be made ready for the approval of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM).

  Expressing satisfaction over the performance of IGI, Fashola said the organization’s African Expansion Programme (AEP) launched in 2005 has turned the firm to a frontier in the industry, noting that it was a measure to complement the federal government’s foreign investment profile most especially in the African region.

  He urged NAICOM to scrap its yearly renewal of brokers’ license, “ advanced countries have dispensed with such practices. It is high time we embraced activities that will deepen insurance in Nigeria”, Fashola stressed.

  He pressed that the Insurance Act of 2013 which pegs investment in landed properties at 25 per cent and 35 per cent for General Business and life Business must be reviewed due to the crash in the Quoted Stock market which made some insurance companies lose heavy investment in the past.

  Also speaking at the event, the President of the NCRIB, Mr. Ayodapo Shoderu said government must pay for every services provided by the industry. He also cautioned politicians to avoid actions, which could cause crisis during the coming general election.

  As part of the Council’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), its invited students drawn from two government secondary schools namely Wesley Girls Secondary School and Lagos City College and awarded with different gifts.