About 60 staff employed by insurers yearly, says CIIN DG

　


Chuks Udo Okonta

Average of 60 people are employed by insurance companies yearly, Director General, Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) Mr Adegboyega Adepegba, has said.
He told Inspen that the industry has not been able to balance the rate at which people leave with that of intake.
He said: "We want to match the number of those coming in two times over and above the number of people going out. But we have not been able to achieve that. There is a danger if we have for example 30 people retiring every year and we cannot find 40 and 50 people replacing them by way of qualification.
"When we did the last count, we discovered that we only have an average of 60 people joining the profession every year. We do not have the statistics of those leaving the industry, but we know that people are leaving due to age and some other reasons. Though there are improvements in the number of people coming in, we are working seriously to get more people into the profession through the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), visit to tertiary institutions, catch them young programme, our operation 5000 graduate scheme and others.
He said unless urgent measures are taking the industry may be heading for extinction as 60 per cent of its workforce is said to be near retirement age. He said the industry’s operation is threatened by human capacity gap, adding that most of the industry’s workforce is almost 60 years of age.
He noted that to revise the trend operators must begin to recruit young and intelligent personnel.
"The statistics available to us show that in few years from now, the industry work-force will consist of people that are 60 years and above age bracket, and this is not good for the industry. If about 60 per cent of the industry’s workforce will be aging – going towards 60 years, therefore, there is a dare need to inject new people into the industry. I think every body has agreed on this. By the time we achieve all these, the issue of succession planning and running of the companies would be made easier," he said.
He said the institute is reaching out to youths through their schools and encouraging them to take professional insurance examinations to beef up the human capacity depth.
Investigations show that Capital Express Assurance Limited in 2009 had 135 staff and in 2010 137 an indication that only two people were employed. Crystalife 123 in 2010 and 128 in 2011, (5). Niger Insurance Plc, 400 in 2010 and 401 in 2011 (1) and Standard Alliance Plc 187 in 2009 and 191 in 2010 (4).