ADDRESS BY MOHAMMED KARI, COMMISSIONER FOR INSURANCE NIGERIA AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE NATIONAL INSURANCE COMMISSION (NAICOM DURING THE VISIT TO HIS EXCELLENCY, ALH. IBRAHIM HASSAN DANKWAMBO, EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR OF GOMBE STATE ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2016 AT GOVERNMENT HOUSE, GOMBE
Protocol
It gives me great pleasure to be in your midst today and I sincerely appreciate Your Excellency for finding the time to be in audience with us notwithstanding your very busy schedule.
Your Excellency, may I inform you that I am accompanied to Gombe by the Management team of NAICOM and as well, senior finance/Insurance Correspondents of major Newspapers, Television and Radio stations from Abuja and Lagos respectively. We are in Gombe for the annual seminar for Insurance journalists hosted by the Commission to continually apprise the press of developments in the Insurance sector.
Suffice it to say that the choice of Gombe as the host city for this year’s seminar is not accidental. Indeed, the Commission has keenly observed your Government’s people oriented programmes across the nooks and crannies of the state. Allow me to on behalf of the Commission commend your giant strides aimed at taking Gombe State to the next level. We salute your drive and share in your dreams. We wish you success in office and pray the Almighty strengthen you.
As you may be aware, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) is the statutory body established to regulate and supervise the Nigerian Insurance Industry. The Commission derives its regulatory and supervisory powers from the National Insurance Commission and Insurance Acts 1997 and 2003 respectively.
As an agency of the Federal Government, the Commission’s activities are coordinated from our headquarters in Abuja. Besides this, we currently have a Control office in Lagos and four zonal offices in Kano, North West Nigeria, Enugu in the South East, Port Harcourt in the South South and Ilorin in the North Central part of the Country. The North East zonal office and some branches would soon become operational to ensure wider coverage and support to consumers and providers of insurance services.
The locations of the state branch offices will be carefully selected based on their strategic economic importance and relevance to the growth and development of insurance in the respective zones.
The Commission incepted a market development plan code-named “Market Development and Restructuring Initiative” (MDRI) in 2009. The programme is in line with the Federal Government’s FSS2020 development framework and has amongst its objectives, to promote public understanding of insurance mechanism; build confidence in the Nigerian Insurance Market, grow the gross premium income, increase insurance density and contribution to GDP and ensure enforcement and monitoring of compulsory insurances in Nigeria.
The first phase of the project has since be completed with its launching in Abuja and all the six geo-political zones in the country. The Commission is at the moment fine-tuning plans to kick-start the second phase of the project which is focused on implementation and enforcement of compulsory insurances across the country. Some of these compulsory insurances enshrined in various extant laws of the country include:
• Motor Vehicle (Third Party) Liability Insurance
• Builders Liability Insurance (Buildings under construction)
• Occupiers Liability Insurance on Public Building
• Healthcare Professional Liability Insurance
• Group Life Insurance.
Your Excellency, this brings us to the crux of our visit to you today. We are here to seek your support and collaboration in the implementation and enforcement of these compulsory insurance products across Gombe State. It is our intention to establish a mutually beneficial relationship with the state. I say this with confidence that while the collaboration will result in increased insurance penetration and written premium income for the industry, it will also create another veritable source of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for the State Government.
We are not unmindful of the fact that the laws establishing these products are federal laws but they can easily be domesticated by the States and enforced within their respective boundaries. We therefore would want to appeal to the Gombe State Government to incept the process of domesticating these laws if it has not already done that, especially in respect of buildings under construction and public building insurances for easy enforcement.
Our proposed collaboration will hopefully stem the proliferation of fake insurances in the state and ensure the people enjoy the benefits inherent in the consumption of genuine insurance products.
Another very disturbing issue Your Excellency is that of apathy to insurance by Government and its Agencies at all levels. We have discovered that most government fail to insure their assets and property even when funds are provided in the budget for it. This has become something of great concern to us in NAICOM and I want to use this medium to solicit the support and understanding of His Excellency in ensuring that the government of Gombe State provides adequate insurance for its assets and property. We have indeed established a dedicated committee in NAICOM to assist various governments in insuring their assets and property accordingly. This committee will be ready to work with your people once we receive your nod Sir.
In conclusion Your Excellency, I am glad to inform you that the insurance sector in Nigeria has under gone many reforms which have significantly changed the face of insurance in the country. The reform efforts have also attracted significant Foreign Direct Investment in the sector. As at today, no fewer than 10 companies have one form of foreign investment or the other with many more still waiting to come in. This has brought about efficiency, prompt payment of claims and most importantly, healthy competition amongst operators.
With an estimated population of over 170 million people and given the present level of insurance penetration in Nigeria, the potential of the market is yet to be fully explored.
Your Excellency, once again I thank you most sincerely for your time and the reception accorded us.
God Bless your Excellency
God Bless Gombe State
God Bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria
Thank you.
Mohammed Kari
Commissioner for Insurance/CEO
