NCRIB tells FG to reconsider Classification of NAICOM as Revenue Generating Agency

 

The Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers has called on the Federal Government to reconsider its stand on the directive classifying the National Insurance Commission as revenue generating agency.

 

Prince Babatunde Oguntade, the President of the Council, made this call at the retreat organised for members of the House Committee on Insurance and Actuarial Matters recently in Lagos.

Oguntade, noted that the insurance supervisory fund levy being paid by insurance institutions was meant for the regulatory supervision and market development drive of the insurance industry by the Commission and placing it within the Single Treasury Account system would encumbers the financial solvency position of the commission and ostensibly hinders the market much desired insurance growth in the country.

 

The NCRIB President noted that the insurance industry which should be the linchpin of economic revival efforts of government in Nigeria was currently fragile and that the law makers should encourage government to exempt the Commission from the revenue generating agencies it was recently classified as.

 

He also appealed to the law makers to work expeditiously on the passage of the 2022 Consolidated Insurance Bill which when passed into law would cure the various inadequacies in the existing Insurance Act 2003 and the 1997 NAICOM Act, for the steady growth of the industry.

 

Oguntade, expressed concerns that government institutions were lax in ensuring that human and material assets of government are adequately insured, imploring the law makers to reverse the tide by encouraging performance of the implementation of insurance budgets by Ministries, Departments and Agencies for the overall growth of the insurance and its accelerated contribution to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

 

In a separate development, the body of Insurance Brokers has commiserated with victims of the Mandilas fire incident in Lagos as it condemned the poor attitude of the public to insurance.

 

Prince Babatunde Oguntade, Prince Oguntade who noted that the magnitude of the losses could have been mitigated if the victims adequately insured their assets and utilized the services of insurance brokers that are the professional intermediaries in the insurance value chain.

 

While calling on Nigerians to imbibe the culture of insurance for the mitigation of their exposure to risks, Oguntade opined that government at all levels needed to pay more attention to enforcement of existing laws backing some compulsory insurances, to help the government and the people protect their human and material assets, as well as grow the insurance industry.

 

The NCRIB President noted that “it remains inexpedient for government to continually seek to provide palliatives for victims of calamities. Instead, they could assist encourage or assist them to pay insurance premiums, to enable them make claims that would be consistent with the volume of their losses when they occur”

 

He seized the avenue to underscore the roles of the insurance brokers in educating insurance clients (existing and potential) about benefits of insurance, while also acting as their dependable allies in the event of claims payment.