Insurance industry consultative committee begins on Wednesday

 

Chuks Udo Okonta

The Insurance Industry Consultative Committee (IICC) designed to unite and promote common interest among the various arms of the sector will be inaugurated on Wednesday August 21, Inspen has learnt.

The Acting Director-General President Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) Kola Ahmad, who confirmed this, said the Commissioner for Insurance Fola Daniel, would flagged-off the committee at the CIIN headquarters in Lagos.

The committee, it was learnt, would consists executives of the various arms, which would before coming to meetings, meet with their members and table issues bothering on their operations and practice, and present same to the committee to be chaired by the Commissioner for Insurance.

Past President CIIN Dr. Wole Adetimehi, said issues such as the modalities, objective, constitution  of membership, regularity of frequency of meetings, chairmanship of the body, administration of the body, who qualifies to be member of the committee have all been sorted out.   

He noted that for many years, if the industry has had this kind of bonding, it would have made tremendous progress.

He said: "What has been in place for many years, was that the various arm of the industry,  do approached and sort out issues with our regulator one-on-one, whether the interest of the other arms are affected or would be affected, there has never been any recognition of that possibility. At the end of the day, in the past, we often have conflict of interest.

"The Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), would sorted itself out, whether the interest of brokers are taken care of nobody bothers. The Nigeria Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), would approach the regulator with issues, they would be trashed out, whether the   Institute of Loss Adjusters of Nigeria (ILAN), has been stepped upon, nobody cares."

He noted that in the new concept or initiative, all the arms of the industry would be put together under one umbrella, and that at regular intervals, they would speak with the regulator, adding that the platform would enable the industry operators save time on unnecessary dissipation of energy without achieving much and collectively with one voice, make pronouncement.

He said because the initiative is the baby of the CIIN, its reigning president and all past presidents would qualify as automatic members of the committee, stressing that for the other arms, their current presidents and the immediate past presidents with their executives would also be members of the committee.

Adetimehin said the committee would also create room for the commissioner to intimate the industry practitioners with up and coming rules, guidelines, new laws or developments and that the operators would take such opportunity to express their feelings, contributions, before the rules, laws and guidelines become operational or effective.