Insurance

Paper by Prosper Okpue Executive Vice Chairman-IBN at unveiling of IBN’s new identity

Introducing IBN
Prosper Okpue (Executive Vice Chairman-IBN)
(Protocols)

• His Excellency, Chief Emeka Anyaoku GCVO, CFR, CON – Chairman of this Historic Event
• The Commissioner for Insurance, Alh. Mohammed Kari
• The Chairman of IBN Board, Otunba (Dr.) Adekunle Ojora OFR, Chairman of IBN Board
• Distinguished Guests and Clients of IBN
• Captains of Commerce, Industry and Government Establishments
• The Board, Management & Staff of IBN
• Ladies & Gentlemen of the Press
(Our Special Guest of Honour, His Excellency Chief Emeka Anyaoku, the Honourable Commissioner for Insurance, Our amiable Chairman of IBN Board, Otunba Ojora; distinguished ladies and gentlemen;)
First, I like to express my sincere appreciation to all of you who have created the time, out of your busy schedules especially with the deluge of rainfall of the past few days, to honour us by attending this milestone event in our company’s journey to the future. I also acknowledge with gratitude the goodwill messages from our friends and well-wishers from different parts of the world.
Both Chief Emeka Anyaoku and Otunba Ojora have spoken eloquently about the insurance industry, brokerage services and Insurance Brokers of Nigeria. I must say our journey as IBN would not have been this successful but for the steadfast support, guidance and mentorship of the Chairman, the non-executive Board and colleagues of our firm. Every IBN client has been part of our existence, success and future. We cherish our work for each of you, our clients and thank you for your loyalty.
Like our Chairman Otunba Ojora, said,”…we have been consistently serving the Nigerian people and corporate enterprises over the last 62 years and recognise how much has changed since we started in 1955”.
“Our clients are more diverse than ever; their operational risks and business dynamics are varied and always changing”
We remain in the forefront of providing collaborative risk solutions to various strategic sectors of the Nigerian economy.
IBN’s Next 62 Years is firmly fixed in the future.
We have consciously evolved as Nigeria’s pioneer incorporated insurance broking firm established in 1955, to a fully integrated risk management and insurance broking firm and ranks top amongst the most respected and preferred broking firms in the country.
We leverage on our historical experience of Nigeria and our deep understanding of its business dynamics helps our clients make the right decisions for their businesses.
The evolution of Nigeria presents great opportunities for every patriotic individual and visionary enterprise. IBN has continuously positioned itself to creating the best advantage as partners to its clients with the singular objective to keep them successful in their enterprises.
How we are structured in IBN

We are structured to offering specialist services through our core practice groups:

A. IBN Specialty Insurance Broking Services: Our industry specialty focuses on Commerce and Industry, Energy (Oil, Gas and Natural Resources), Power and Infrastructure, Construction, Communications, Marine, Aviation & Aerospace, Financial Services, Public Corporations, Educational Services, Personal and Private Wealth Insurance.
B. Wholesale Reinsurance Services: IBN’s wholesale reinsurance division works with local insurers/reinsurers and international reinsurance brokers to unbundle risks and create facilities that protect Nigerian reassured, in support of Nigeria’s local content and insurance regulations of a non-admitted market. Our wholesale reinsurance practice develops innovative solutions to create reinsurance market capacity and facilities behind primary insurance carriers who must be offered risks domiciled in Nigeria.

C. Industrial Risks Protection Consultants (IRPC): IRPC, the first of its kind in Nigeria, is our professional risk engineering, loss prevention and risk management consulting subsidiary fully dedicated to conservation of property, continuity of business and safety of lives.
D. Resource Benefits Associates (RBA): Our human capital and benefits specialists provide consulting services on employees’ health and benefits, compensation and employee retirement plans, executive compensation and undertake the design of appropriate benefits schemes beyond statutory plans that help attract, motivate and retain employees.

Our strength is our unparalleled local knowledge with global experience and commitment to deliver specialty services as invaluable partner to our clients in providing seamless support to meeting their risk and insurance management goals.
Market Leverage: IBN is an eminent insurance broker with an enviable reputation for professionalism and leverage in the industry. IBN deploys in excess of N10billion into the Nigerian insurance market. This leverage ensures that we have access to the key decision makers of all insurance companies to negotiate the best deal for our clients whether on programme pricing, robust cover or claims settlement.

International Insurance Market Access: We have a complete grasp of the local and global markets which enables us to develop the maximum possible competition for our clients and therefore drive down pricing.

UNiBA: We are partners of UNiBA, a leading global network of independent insurance and reinsurance brokers in more than 100 countries in the world, each of whom supports each other to bring the best quality service to members’ clients in their domicile countries.
(We have in our presence today UNiBA’s Chief Executive Mareen Hüffmeier and Rajiv Mathur; Board Director of Africa & Middle East who left their various countries to join IBN in celebrating our journey to the future. Thank you Mareen and Rajiv, we appreciate your sacrifice and spirit of comradeship which is unique to UNiBA.)
Our core values of professionalism, integrity and ethics, have endured through more than 62 years of respected continuous service.
Doing business ethically is the foundation of IBN’s age-long reputation. We guard and cherish our integrity. Our people are our greatest resource. Every colleague in IBN conducts him or herself professionally whilst working for our clients.
How We Work for Our Clients:
We first make a business case on how we should work with each client, by developing a proper understanding and agreement of their business and risk management goals from which we;
• Develop a proper risk profile and unique features of their business and operations

• Advise on an effective insurance program that will protect the operations risks
• Focus on total cost of risk rather than simple amount spent on insurance to ensure the cost of risk is as low as possible
• Structure the insurance program to create competition within the insurance market
• Use available local and international reinsurance facilities to maximize our leverage and secure best possible insurance program pricing
• Negotiate and implement basic claims procedures that will facilitate prompt and fair claims resolution and recovery.
Why our Clients Value our Specialty Insurance Broking Services

“The IBN Advantage”

We certainly are not everything to all clients but we,

• Dedicate our efforts to each client’s unique needs with our team of property insurance specialists who design innovative solutions to their operations.

• Develop easy-to-use interactive insurance programs to enable clients manage their insurance programs and claims seamlessly

• Act as an extension of their corporate risk and insurance department

• Deploy, when necessary, an IBN specialist broker as on-site client insurance manager to free our client’s corporate risk manager from certain specific and routine insurance functions.

• Deploy all our resources to ensure prompt resolution and recovery of claims

• We put our clients first. As an independent firm, we create competition working with other international wholesale insurance brokers to bring the best value to our clients.

• We strive to maintain the highest service levels for our clients, maximise our leverage in the insurance market place to achieve the most cost effective insurance programs and recover their claims efficiently and promptly.

• We are Nigeria’s Local-Global company with firm belief on the aspirations of Nigeria’s today and the future.
Support to Nigerian Entrepreneurs: IBN has been in the forefront in developing specialist risk and insurance management solutions in the Nigerian Energy Sector for more than three decades.
We helped in pioneering the streamlining of the national oil company’s interests in joint-venture operations with International Oil Companies (IOCs) into a single consolidated insurance program, thereby harnessing its leverage in the local and international energy insurance market for cost effectiveness.
We guided indigenous Nigerian entrepreneurs and concessioners who ventured into Nigeria’s energy industry; developed primary and wholesale insurance facilities for them which enabled them to confidently and successfully participate as independent exploration and production firms.
Multi-Talent Team: IBN remains the only local firm with specialist skills in loss control engineering and has a team of corporate risk managers and engineers experienced both in local and international insurance operations in Nigeria, a legal team, certified risk management and insurance professionals that had worked in energy, power, infrastructure, insurance underwriting and broking firms.
We believe in Nigeria. We maximise local talents to drive our growth. Our management information system is indigenous as we internally developed our propriety software “Dandalin “ which provides business to business support to all levels of clients in the administration of their insurance program. This positions IBN with a 360 degrees support for our clients.
REGULATORY COMPLIANCE: Since 2007, the National Insurance Commission has made efforts to reform and improve the regulatory process of practice of insurance in Nigeria especially in areas of financial security and solvency of underwriters, to industry-wide risk management and corporate governance to Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism.
IBN is the first insurance broking firm to set up a wholesale Legal and Compliance Unit with a mandate to ensure regulatory compliance in our operations as well as enforcement of our Corporate Professional Standards.
We insist on total compliance with all relevant statutory regulations and remain strong advocates for maximizing local privileges conferred on Nigerian companies. We encourage regulators and market to do more to protect this unique privilege.

IBN’s New Brand Identity:
Today’s event marks the commencement of a new phase in our existence that focuses on maintaining our gains over the last six (6) decades while exploring new frontiers and we are glad to have you all in partnership with us during this interesting journey to the future.
Our new brand identity is our response to what our clients refer to us: “IBN”. They hardly refer to us in our full names, Insurance Brokers of Nigeria.
Our new brand colour is Earth and Gold, very African and global. It represents stability of an organization, hard work, knowledge and possibilities.
Our brand logo “IBN” stands for;
Letter “I” is Insurance and risk management
Letter “B” stands for broker with the trunk of an African Elephant, depicting evolution, resilience, strength, memory, knowledge and capability.
Letter “N” stands for Nigeria our dear country, with unalloyed patriotism and belief of possibilities of our great nation
We have been here for over 62 years and will be here another 62 years. Our new IBN brand identity is a demonstration of our resolve to continue to serve our clients, with our knowledge of the past, the present and our ability to bring the future today.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I invite you all to embark with us on this journey as we work tirelessly for your prosperity and shape the fortunes of our nation.
I thank you for your faith in us and hope you enjoy the rest of the evening.

Prosper C. Okpue
Federal Palace Hotel Lagos, July 13, 2017.

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