An Insurance analyst, Mr Muftau Oyegunle, on Sunday advised the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) to reduce licence renewal requirements for insurance brokers.
Oyegunle, who made this call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, urged the commission to consider two to three years documentation requirements for brokers.
NAN reports that the commission, on Dec, 8, delisted 108 insurance brokers for failing to renew their licenses.
Oyegunle said that the call became necessary because brokers had been complaining about the high renewal fees and huge volume of documentation required by NAICOM.
“Brokers have always complained about the volume of documentation to NAICOM”.
Oyegunle, who is the Managing Director of LAKEG Insurance Consultants, said that reduction would ease documentation and other challenges facing brokers.
“The renewal fees to the Nigerian Council of Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) and NAICOM is much; most practitioners are stressing themselves to pay this money.
“These renewal fees are outside taxes paid by the practitioners to tax authorities; this is very unfair.
“So, the commission and council need to cut license renewal fees”.
The expert also urged practitioners not to take the “Name-and- Shame Policy”, recently employed by NAICOM, for granted.
“I guess the policy is necessitated by the hues and cries about fines from NAICOM.
“People easily forget that NAICOM owes a duty to protect the fragile image of the insurance industry, therefore negative information need to be well managed.
‘’More than naming, all bodies that control practitioners should initiate disciplinary actions against members to stop further mess in the industry,’’ he said. NAN)
