The Commissioner for Insurance, National Insurance Commission, Alhaji Mohammed Kari, has called for synergy among arms of insurance to enhance the industry.
Kari made the call in a statement issued by Rasaq Salami, the Public Relations Officer of NAICOM in Lagos on Thursday.
The commissioner spoke at the ongoing Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers Chief Executives retreat in Uyo.
The theme of the retreat is: “The Future Broker’’.
The insurance arms include The Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria and Nigeria Insurance Association.
Others are the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers, Institute of Loss Adjusters and Association of Registered Insurance Agents.
Kari said synergy among the arms would also enhance growth of the industry.
He, however, expressed regrets that such synergy was often ignored by the “we will do it alone’’ attitude being displayed by some arms.
According to him, such practice is not healthy.
Kari said that there was the need for brokers to address the practice in order to be part of the future market.
He explained that NAICOM’s approach to regulation was an interactive one and should be emulated.
He said: “Primarily, NAICOM encourages self-regulation where feasible, however, it was misconstrued as a licence for statutory independence.
“This is a misnomer in any clime.’’
Kari said that in order to bridge the regulation and supervision gap, the commission would continually issue new and supplementary guidelines.
He said: “To supplement tweaking in the distribution channels, this would expose specific drafts of guidelines directed to each arm.
“When that of the Brokers’ is released, you would see the commission’s idea for the future broker.
“This would complement the excellent effort of this retreat.
“We are also sure there would be prescriptions in the guidelines of the appropriate medication needed to cure some of the illnesses inhibiting today’s broker.
“This would speed up the realisation of the future broker.”
Kari urged stakeholders to begin to evolve strategies to exploit the retail market.
He said there was no gainsaying that the future of the industry would depend more on retail rather than corporate businesses.
According to statistical reports, the Nigerian adult population which consists of people from 18 years and above is 96.4 million, out of which 59.6 million are living in the rural areas.
He said: “Among this rural populace, 40.1 million are excluded from any form of financial services.
“Additionally, the Nigerian formal sector provides income to only 7.9 million adults, representing 4.2 per cent, whereas 41.6 per cent are excluded from financial services, including insurance.
“This offers a huge opportunity for the future broker to provide desirable services to close these existing gaps and enhance the general performance of the industry.’’