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NAICOM tasks AIO on African market development

Suffice to state that insurance operators and regulators across the continent have agreed that the African insurance market is in dare need of serious collaboration and synergy as they look inward to make an impact.

 

The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has called on the leadership of African Insurance Organistion (AIO) to work towards strengthening the African insutance market, especially now that a Nigerian insurance company CEO, Mr. Tope Smart, is the new President of the a body representing the African insurance sector.

 

The call for African governments to strongly support the insurance sector has been ongoing for decades.

 

The Commissioner for Insurance, Mr. Sunday Thomas, who made the call at the just concluded conference of the AIO, charge the new president of AIO to cap it by vigorously persuading the governments across the continent to play their roles in providing the necessary support and create an enabling environment for insurance activities to flourish.

 

The NAICOM boss said the AIO should also persuade the  governments on continued lifting of border barriers making movement of resources almost impossible, promote healthy competitions amongst member states and promoting knowledge sharing across the continent among other objectives that will make insurance business thrive within the African markets.

Thomas who said the commission has been able to get more support from the Nigerian government stated that the this is the very first time that any Nigerian President or Head of State will personally attend any program of the insurance sector in Nigeria.

 

He expressed excitement that not only is President Buhari paying attention to the sector, the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Minister of Finance, Dr. Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed and other State Governors are also doing the same, as evidenced by their presence at the conference.

 

He said: “The founding fathers of the AIO had a very thoughtful foresight by making sure we have this forum that has over these years had achieved tremendous success in harmonising the African insurance markets and bringing together experts of different insurance faculties annually to discuss burning issues affecting the continent and the rest of the world. I believe the outcome of all our deliberations in the last few days will go a long way in helping us thrive higher in achieving our goals and objectives”.

 

While congratulating Smart, the Commissioner said: “I want to say to the incoming President that the journey ahead may not be all smooth especially due to aftermath effect of COVID19 and the shapes of our economies across Africa presently.

There is huge task ahead of you and your team, but working with you over the years gives me high confidence that you are equal to the task and I can vouch for your hard work, resilience, foresight and determination. “I am sure we are all going to be proud of your tenure in the AIO.

 

We will give the organisa tion necessary support it requires as we have always done and in return, we expect that Nigeria as a member is going to reap all benefits of its membership in the organisation in line with the new strategic objectives of the AIO.

 

It is worthy to say that the African insurance market is in dare need of serious collaboration and synergy now than in other time in the past as we rightly agreed here that we must look inward if truly we want to make an impact.

 

Time has passed that we rely on foreign or international support from the west and other super powers as the world at large is overwhelmed by so many issues.

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