Volatile economy pushes insurers to quarterly plan

Nigeria’s unpredictable state of economy has largely forced insurance companies to phase out the traditional yearly plan and replace it with a quarterly plan which is flexible with quick response to the turns and bends in the economy.

This was disclosed by the Chairman of the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), Olusegun Omosehin at a recent media briefing in Lagos.

He stressed that opting for quarterly plans was the advice given to members as an antidote for the volatile state of the economy.

Omosehin said, “Part of what we have done is to encourage our members to be a lot more proactive in terms of planning. Often companies plan for 12 months at the beginning of every year, but in an environment like this you might need to break down your plans to shorter periods where you have a quarterly review of whatever plans you have to see whether they are tracking in line with your projections”.

The NIA Chairman said there is something to hope for, and sounded optimistic, “But we believe so much in the economy that there would be a bounce back,” in apparent response to loss of hope across the nation, he stated, “Some people say we are on our way to Zimbabwe, I don’t agree with that. I think things are tough right now because of the choices we have made as a country but we must have the will to see it through before we begin to get the benefits.”

Projecting what might lie ahead, Omosehin said, “In each of those policies there are some embedded benefits. We can only see those benefits if we can see through the implementation of those schemes.”