By: Zaka Khaliq (National Mirror Newspaper)
The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has licensed 314 insurance brokers to operate in insurance sector of the nation’s economy, National Mirror learnt. Last April 1st, NAICOM said it had licenced 301 Insurance brokers to transact business of insurance in the country.
Investigations by National Mirror indicated that the number had risen to 314 in the last one month. Confirming this development last week, the President, Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers(NCRIB), Mr. Kayode Okunoren, at the April edition of the Brokers’ Evening in Lagos, charged NAICOM to always publish the list of qualified brokers on time as the number has grown beyond the 301 brokers that was published by the commission.
He said:”Recently, NAICOM commenced the publication of brokers list that had satisfied the renewal requirements as at the date of the publication in line with the commission’s practice.
But unfortunately, rumour had made the rounds that only the 300 brokers on the list as at the first publicationweretheonlylicensedoperatorsinthe market, sending misleading signals to the insuring public.
This information is quite erroneous as number has increased to about 314 members as at today.” He urged the regulatory agency to exercise its statutory responsibility by making public the list of practitioners who have satisfied their renewal requirement as they are cleared by the commission.
The industry top players projected that the number of licensed brokers would keep increasing as not all brokers had the same renewal dates and that this explains the differentiation in the period of the approval of their licenses by NAICOM.
While calling on his colleagues who have not satisfied the renewal requirements to do so as soon as possible to avoid the penalty from the regulatory body, Okunoren said that he was glad to inform them that NCRIB and NAICOM have continued to forge effective collaboration in the area of statutory registration.
