From left: President of CIIN, Eddie Efekoha decorating Olola Olabode Ogunlana with the Doyen award.
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Chuks Udo Okonta
The Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) has conferred the title of Doyen of Insurance on its former President and Chairman, SCIB Nigeria Limited, Olola Olabode Ogunlana, who is presently the oldest Insurance practitioner in the country.
The President of the Institute, Eddie Efekoha, at the conferment at the CIIN’s 60th anniversary gala night, yesterday in Lagos, said the insurance industry is blessed to have Ogunlana and other founding fathers still contributing to the well being of the industry.
He noted that the Doyen, been the oldest insurance practitioner is well qualified for the title, adding that the institute will continue to celebrate its living legends.
Doyen Ogunlana, who was grateful for the conferment, implored insurance operators to continue to work assiduously to take their place of pride, noting that in his early years, banks were owned by insurance firms.
He also told the operators to seek knowledge about what they do and go beyond their operations to understudy every business they seek to underwrite, stressing that operators should learn to speak the language their customers understand.
From left: Efekoha; Doyen Olola Olabode Ogunlana and his wife
Olola Olabode Ogunlana, B.A. (Hons), M.A., M.B.A. is a Chartered Insurance Practitioner. He was the first Nigerian Managing Director of the National Insurance Corporation of Nigeria. In 1975, Olola Ogunlana set-up SCIB Nigeria Insurance Limited, which is a highly successful insurance broking and consulting firm.
Olola Ogunlana was born in Ogere-Remo, Ogun State and brought up by his parents (his father was a schoolmaster).
Olola Ogunlana is a life-long learner and following a 50-year long and highly successful career as a chartered insurer, he has returned to school many times: to an Italian academy to study painting; to Oxford University’s summer school for a Creative Writing and Poetry course; as well as for Bachelors and Masters degrees in English Literature at Buckingham University.
Since his retirement from active insurance work, he has devoted much time to the study of Yoruba culture and language. Whilst studying in the U.K, Olola Ogunlana had discussions with the academic community on how best to translate the rich Yoruba folklores into English to appeal to an international audience.
The result are the two recently-published books – The Quest for Rare the Leaf and Other Yoruba Tales and Yoruba Love Series – in which, Olola Ogunlana translated centuries-old Yoruba oral folklore into English, thereby making it more accessible to a global and modern set of readers.
Olola Ogunlana is also a former Chief Commissioner of Boys Scout of Nigeria.
