The Commissioner for Insurance, Mr. Fola
Daniel, has said the Nigerian insurance industry now ranks as the
second largest in Africa.
Daniel said this during the opening of
the maiden insurance industry mega conference, with the theme,
‘Developing insurance business for national growth’, in Abuja on Monday.
“Nigeria’s insurance industry is now the second largest in Africa from a fifth position three years ago,” he said.
According to him, Nigeria should be the first, because it has the potential to make it rank as the number one on the continent.
He
said that as part of the financial industry reform initiatives of the
Federal Government, NAICOM had carried out several industry specific
reforms that had significantly impacted and positively changed the
industry, leading to improvement in perception by the insuring public.
“We have over the years pursued various
initiatives to facilitate the deepening of insurance penetration in
Nigeria as well as remove poor perception of insurance,” Daniel said.
The commissioner said NAICOM had
introduced a wide range of regulatory guidelines, which in addition to
other market development initiatives, were targeted at strengthening
insurance institutions, building confidence in the insurance market and
significantly improving the attractiveness of the industry to both local
and foreign markets.
He said the journey of the Nigerian
insurance industry to greater heights had commenced with the
commission’s modest efforts given the potential of the nation’s economy
and the insurance market in particular.
“We only need to adjust our individual
and corporate culture to the business in order to arrive at the desired
destination in good time,” Daniel said.
The Chairman, Insurance Industry
Consultative Committee, Mr. Bola Temowo, said the establishment of the
IICC would continue to manifest in many ways, adding that the mega
conference would remain a lasting legacy as it had resolved issues of
the past years when the industry arms dissipated energy in different
directions and organising separate conferences for the same people.