The Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Mr. Tony Elumelu has called on insurance practitioners to make the sector and profession exciting and more attractive because it still has a lot of potential.
He also recommends a minimum of N50 million as a capital base for the industry and harps on the need to recapitalise the brokerage industry in our country, saying that N5 million is not enough capital base for an industry.
In his keynote address at the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) 60th anniversary held in Lagos, Elumelu said though Members of NCRIB have, over the years, facilitated insurance businesses in hundreds of billions of naira, delighted millions of Nigerians with their professional insurance services, and ensured that claims are duly settled, yet, NCRIB still has a lot to offer to its members and the Nigerian insurance industry as a whole.
“There is always room for improvement. We must strive to achieve the highest levels of professionalism and dedication to delivering excellent service to the public who rely on us to provide them with comfort
“In the area of Governance, we as an industry need to enforce strict adherence to corporate governance by all NCRIB members.
“The need for the body to weed out non-registered and non-compliant members from its fold. These are the ones tarnishing the image of the broking profession and the industry at large. An insurance broker must be professional at all times, ,” he emphasized.
The insurance broker is a professional. He represents the interests of insurance consumers and provides them with expert advice, guidance, and support on insurance matters he stated.
In redefining the practice and practitioners in the broking profession, NCRIB should lead the war against many of the unethical practices that have been the bane of the industry for years Elumelu advised.
He said these include premium rate cutting, delayed premium remittance, unremitted premium, overloading of premium, returned premium, fake documents, fraudulent claims, collusion to defraud, mis-selling, unhealthy competition, misrepresentations, manipulation of policy conditions, self-enrichment methods disguised as marketing expenses, and many more.
The theme of the event is :60 Years of Insurance Broking: Redefining the Practice and the Practitioners.”
The Chairman of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Africa’s global bank present in 20 African countries including France, USA, UK, and the UAE, added that tt the Heirs Holdings Group “we are committed to improving lives and transforming the continent.This is why last year we entered the insurance sector with the introduction of Heirs Life Assurance and Heirs Insurance Limited.”
An economy according to Elumelu is therefore as advanced as its insurance sector.
More importantly, in an economy going through inflation and a widening poverty gap, insurance is more important now than ever.
According to him, the insurance industry can benefit from innovation across all phases of the service. For this to happen, there is the need to reward and incentivise innovation across the industry.
Elumelu emphasized on the need to democratise luck and the creation of economic opportunities, adding that one of the ways “ we have been able to demonstrate this is through the work of The Tony Elumelu Foundation.”
Also speaking, the Chief Consultant B. Adedipe Associates Limited, DrBiodunAdedipe said brokers should not only excite the market, but continue to research especially on how high networth individuals can get more value from the sector.
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