Protocols.
This indeed is the
day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice in it and will be glad. Please join
me therefore in rejoicing and celebrating the day and to thank the Almighty for
counting me worthy of His divine favour.
Indeed, there are but
few privileges in life which are greater than being favoured with the
opportunity to become President of one’s Professional Body. Let me acknowledge
that this is not by my power nor by might but by the Spirit of the Lord, for
there are many who eminently qualified to be President of the Chartered
Insurance Institute of Nigeria. It is therefore a unique privilege and will remain
indelible in my life.
I am most elated as I
stand before you to deliver my first public address and acceptance speech as
the 47th President/Chairman of Council of our great Institute. The
significance of today’s event is underscored by the presence of very eminent
personalities from all walks of life, including some of my predecessors,
chieftains and captains of our industry as well as icons of our profession
whose exalted presence I sincerely cherish.
INCURSION
INTO THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY
In the lives of most
great men and women, providence had to play a significant role in paving the
path they had to thread. My case is not an exception, for irrespective of my
university degree in the Arts, French, in particular, I was led into making my
incursion into the Insurance Industry by providence, or by accident as many
would say. My choice to study French was well guided as I then had useful
insights of the importance of French as a requirement for securing a job in the
Ministry of External Affairs (Now Foreign Affairs) and ultimately fulfilling my
ambition of becoming an Ambassador.
But that
Ambassadorial dream was never to be or perhaps I should say has not
materialized or you could say with certainty that I am now a proud Ambassador
of our great Institute, the Insurance Industry and the feminine gender as a
whole as the 5th female President of our great Institute, thereby
blazing the trail of my predecessors. They are:
Ø Mrs.
C.M. Okpaise (1981)
Ø Late
Erelu O.O. Aina (1990)
Ø Mrs.
C.A. Rowaiye (1996/97)
Ø Mrs.
Oluseyi J. Ifaturoti (2005/2007)
The most Glory
belongs to the Almighty God for my foray into the Insurance Industry. I must
however give credit to three persons who played significant roles for leading
me to an Industry I knew very little or nothing about before 2nd
January 1980 when I was employed as a Graduate Trainee in the Nigeria
Reinsurance Corporation, the Premier Reinsurance company in Nigeria. My
previous stints as a teacher, first as a Youth Corp teacher at the Army
Children’s School in Yola, in the then Gongola State (Now Adamawa State) and
later at the Lady of Apostles Secondary school, Yaba in Lagos, were a far cry
from my ambassadorial dream.
In that frame of
mind, I desperately needed a job which could approximate to my dream. It was at
this point that my late friend, Mrs. Lizzie Onianwa gave me a link to her Uncle
Sir Henry Omo who in turn opened the way to meeting Professor Joe Irukwu who was
Managing Director of Nigeria-Re at the time. The rest is history.
CHALLENGES
As is to be expected,
it wasn’t all rosy, permit me therefore, to state that there were huge
challenges on the path of remaining in Nigeria-Re to date. The first bothered
on the criteria for promotion, especially in the early years. At the time, you could
say you were guaranteed accelerated promotion only if you were professionally
qualified or had passes in some subjects of the professional examination. This
posed a huge challenge considering my background in the Arts, but I was able to
surmount this by dint of hardwork and resoluteness. To the glory of God, I
qualified in 1990 as an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute (UK),
having passed the then required 9 subjects in 3 sittings.
The second challenge
had to do with the wave of restructuring and consolidation which came with
their attendant staff rationalization. Being able to survive these and to
become Managing Director in 2009 is worthy of note. I must however give due
credit to my respective bosses who believed in me and gave me the opportunity
to prove myself.
JOURNEY
TO THE CIIN PRESIDENCY
My foray into the
Insurance Industry in 1980 became the remote beginning of my journey to the
Presidency of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria. But in earnest, the
journey actually commenced when I became a member of the CIIN Offices
Representatives’ Committee (ORC). I then became a co-opted member of the
Governing Council of the Institute when I was elected the Chairman of the
Offices Representatives’ Committee in 1999, following my committed membership
of the ORC. I subsequently contested a proper seat on the Governing Council of
the Institute and remained a Council member ever since.
In these sixteen
years of service on the Council, my path to the Presidency of our great
Institute had become well paved, especially with the various positions I held
during the period. These include:
Ø Past
Chairman, Accreditation Committee
Ø Past
Chairman, Mandatory Continuous Professional Development (MCPD) Committee
Ø Past
President, Professional Insurance Ladies Association (PILA)
Ø Member,
Membership and Professional Standards Committee
Ø Member,
Activities Committee
Ø Member,
Education Committee
Ø Hon.
Treasurer of the Institute
Ø Chairman,
Governing Board of the Centre for Insurance and Financial Management Studies.
Ø Deputy
President of the Institute
Distinguished
Colleagues, Invited Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, the rest is history. Our
gathering on this glorious day marks the epochal destination as I become the 47th
President of our Institute and the 5th female to occupy the exalted
position as I pointed out earlier. I dare say that women have taken their
rightful position in an industry that used to be male dominated and I believe
this is the case in other sectors of the economy. During Mrs.
OluseyiIfaturoti’s Presidency in 2005, destiny was at its best when it thrust
upon the shoulders of women, the Presidency of CIIN, CIBN and ICAN, during the
same period. Today, the women are once again taking the centre stage in a most
remarkable coincidence in which my Deputy is also a woman. She is Mrs. Funmi
Babington-Ashaye who will become the 48th President by the Grace of
God.
Whilst I am not canvassing
a feminist agenda, permit me to state that the women have proven to be
dedicated and committed leaders all over the world. We hope and pray for the
day a female President will emerge in Nigeria, with the trail already blazed in
nearby Liberia.
CONSOLIDATING
THE GAINS OF THE INDUSTRY FOR NATIONAL ECONOMIC GROWTH
I can say without
equivocation that our great Institute has attained the enviable level where we
can celebrate the Legacy of Continuity as exemplified by the programmes of my
predecessors. The cheering new era marks the pursuit of growth agendas for our great
Institute over and above the promotion of any self-glorifying agenda.
The theme of my
Presidency is therefore borne out of the conviction that we can achieve greater
success for our Institute and the Insurance Industry as a whole if we
consolidate on the gains the Institute has made in the last few years whilst
leveraging on such gains of the Industry for National Economic Growth. As we
are also aware, the global economy is transiting from the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We are
therefore on the right path and should sustain the trend.
Against this
background, the following projects will be reinforced and up-scaled.
1.
Promotion
of the ideals of the Insurance Industry Consultative Council (IICC)
The
establishment of the IICC and its landmark success in enthroning Insurance
Industry Unity cannot be over-emphasized. We shall reinforce the gains of the
IICC, especially the sustenance of the Industry Mega Conference of which the
just concluded Maiden edition will remain a reference-point.
2.
Reinforcing
the huge potentials of the Centre for Insurance and Financial Management
Studies.
The
Centre shall be given further prominence through sustained publicity geared at
tapping fully into the opportunity for human capital development for the
Insurance Industry.
3.
Situating
the CIIN on the global stage:
This
will involve articulated efforts geared at enhancing the Institute’s
certificate for global acceptability, especially by up-scaling the
collaboration with the Chartered Insurance Institute (UK).
4.
Promoting
Insurance Awareness by increasing the visibility of Insurance in national
consciousness
We
shall aim at achieving this through publications in the print media. Courtesy
visits will be made to key Newspaper houses to garner support for the awareness
programme.
5.
Follow-up
on the recognition of the CIIN Certificate by the Head of Service of the
Federation.
We
will ensure that all necessary approvals are obtained so that our certificate
holders are appropriately placed in the Civil Service structure.
6.
Further
work on achieving wider coverage in the presentation and distribution of the
Institute’s sponsored Insurance Textbook for Senior Secondary Schools.
In pursuit of this, the following states will be
brought into focus: (Osun, Delta, Imo,
Enugu, Anambra, Abia, Niger, Kogi, Benue and Plateau) Publication of the
book is a landmark achievement of the Institute and should therefore be given
greater prominence in the teaching and study of Insurance as a subject in
Secondary Schools in Nigeria. The proposed Launching/Presentation of the Book
at the National Level will also be pursued to its logical conclusion.
7.
Renewed
Pursuit of Training for Insurance Teachers on a National scale.
This
will focus on States within the South-South, South-East and North-Central
geo-political zones of the country. The Train-the-Trainer project is a
veritable platform for upscaling Insurance education and ensuring that
insurance teachers possess the required skills for imparting the necessary
knowledge to the future generation of insurance practitioners.
8.
Completion
of the Institute’s Examinations Syllabus Review
We
will take urgent steps to conclude the review of the Examinations syllabus with
a view to commencing its implementation. It is pertinent to state that the
syllabus review exercise has provided the opportunity to widen the scope of the
Institute’s examinations to include Insurance Broking and Loss Adjusting
routes. The dynamic business environment coupled with the increasing demands on
the Professionals make the syllabus review compelling in order to further
enrich the contents and technical depth of the examinations.
9.
Commencement
of work on the Institute’s Victoria Island Property
My
predecessors, Messrs.’ F.K. Lawal and Bola Temowo took firm charge of the
outstanding issues which had militated against the resuscitation of the
Victoria Island Building project. The Institute had finally secured the
Building Plan Approval from the Lagos State Government thereby scaling the last
hurdle to actual commencement of construction works on the project. With this
latest development, all encumbrances to further development works on the
project had been removed. The next stage is to determine the
funding/development model to adopt for the project.
10. Pursuit of the
expansion of the Institute’s examinations to countries in West , East and
Central Africa sub-regions i.e. Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Kenya, Uganda,
Zimbabwe etc.
This
will be pursued with vigor in order to extend the frontiers of our professional
examinations. During this dispensation, we will also reinforce the success
recorded with regards to the existing off-shore examination centre in Banjul,
The Gambia and the most recent centre in Kigali, Rwanda.
11. Promotion of CIIN
members’ benefits.
No
efforts will be spared in ensuring that CIIN members get more value for their
membership. In particular, we will focus on delivering continuous education
programmes as well as improving the platforms for engaging members on knowledge
update deliberations on a more regular basis. Let me also stress that
publication of more research based Journals, Newsletters/Contacts will be in
the front-burners during this dispensation.
CONCLUSION
Distinguished
Professional Colleagues, the task are clearly the responsibility of all of us
while I pledge to provide the right leadership in order to expedite action on
all fronts. Fortunately, the Governing Council is blessed with committed
members whose passion for growing our Institute cannot be over emphasized.
As I accept the
mantle of leadership, I wish to pledge with every sense of seriousness and
commitment to promoting the goals and objectives of our great Institute.
Let me end by once
again expressing my profound gratitude to everyone who has found time off their
busy schedules to be here today to honour us. I wish to thank very specially,
Chief Ade Ojo, Chairman of both Elizade Motors and Custodian & Allied
Insurance for accepting to chair my Investiture ceremony today.
Let me also thank my
Investiture Committee, Chaired by our respected Past President, Mr.
FataiKayodeLawal for their painstaking efforts in ensuring the success of this
ceremony:
-
Barr. (Mrs.) LaideOsijo
-
Mr. SakiruOyefeso
-
Sir M.O. Oyegunle
-
OtunbaYeleAkinrolabu
-
Dr. (Mrs.) YesideOyetayo
-
Mrs. AdetutuArusiuka
-
Mrs. AmakaNzewi
-
Mr. Kola Ahmed
-
Mrs. Anne Dike
Thank you for your
attention and God bless you.
LADY ISIOMA
CHUKWUMA, ACII, AIIN
President/Chairman
of Council
CHARTERED
INSURANCE INSTITUTE OF NIGERIA
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