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Chuks Udo Okonta
Insurers under the Risk Management and Compliance Committee of the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) have tasked the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) to purge the insurance industry of unethical practices to redeem its image.
The Committee in a report presented to the association, said the image challenge has been critical amongst other diverse problems facing insurance business.
“NAICOM should continue in its efforts to purge the industry of unethical practices in order to redeem the image of the the industry,” it said.
It noted that a good number of these challenges are connected to the conduct of insurance operators and brokers whose conducts have continued to damage the industry’s image.
The group went further to identified unethical practices clogging the wheel of progress in the industry. The vices include: failure to pay claims to policy holders promptly; rate cutting to beat competition; bid rigging by insurance brokers; giving misleading, incomplete and true information on insurance products; misrepresentation of terms and conditions while selling products to customers; concealing limitations in companies ability to provide services amongst others.
According to the committee, these vices have led to the very low level of insurance penetration and contribution of less than one per cent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The Chairman, Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc, Dr. Akin Ogunbiyi, believes that if there is going to be any paradigm shift in the industry, the revolution has to start from NAICOM.
He noted that those who are behind the vices in the industry are well known, and accused NAICOM of not deeming it fit to sanction them.
“The insurance industry is plagued with ineffective self regulation coupled with statutory regulatory challenges. We know the people who are behind where the industry is today, yet the regulator has not deemed it fit to sanction them.
“Most decisions will fail when the parameters are not right, but decisions that are taken on sound business ethics and there is commitment to following through, will succeed. If there is going g to be any paradigm shift, the revolution has to start from the regulator.”
The Commissioner for Insurance, Mohammed Kari, had said NAICOM would hit hard on unethical practitioners, vowing to withdraw licences and sack managing directors of defaulting companies.
According to him, NAICOM will channel its energy on instituting appropriate premium rate for the industry in 2018.
