Protocol
I
am pleased to be here this afternoon to witness the investiture of Lady Isioma
Chukwuma as the 47th President of the Chartered Insurance Institute
of Nigeria. I want to salute the outgoing President and
Chairman of Council, Mr. Bola Temowo, and members of the Governing Council of
the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), for their steadfast commitment
towards the promotion of insurance education in Nigeria this past one year.
As
you pass on the mantle of leadership of the Institute, I want to congratulate
you and your team for a successful tenure. Let me equally congratulate you for
the success achieved with the official opening of the Institute’s Centre for
Insurance and Financial Management Studies (CIFMS). It is indeed a landmark
achievement. I
believe that given the choice made here today, Lady Chukwuma would be able to
sustain the level of development in the Institute. So it might be safe to say the
leadership of the CIIN is in competent hands.
I
want to seize this opportunity being my first official public engagement as
Commissioner for Insurance to say thank you to all those who sent me messages
of congratulations and prayers on my appointment. I join you all in praying
that God grants us the strength and wisdom to lift the industry another notch
from where it is today. Permit me to also use this medium to seek your
continuing support and cooperation in piloting the affairs of my new
responsibilities. I thank you in advance for your additional prayers.
Current
developments in the country obviously call for our collaborative effort to
reposition the profession and the industry. We should not be unmindful of the
perception of the insurance profession by the public. The apathy towards
insurance and the way and manner the profession is being addressed need a
rethink from all of us. We all know the whys, let’s us discuss dispassionately
and agree the hows of correcting the wrong perceptions.
In
his paper “The Test of Professionalism in the Insurance Industry, 2006.” Wale
Onaolapo summarized the common conditions in judging a profession as “an organized body of knowledge, client
(member) recognition of the authority of the profession, a code of ethics, and
a professional culture nurtured by professional associations”. This
conditions are so basics that one wonders why we would select to be in a
profession, yet refuse to recognize its ethics, culture and its authority. The
best approach is always for the professionals to do it themselves. Left undone,
the regulators has no option but to ensure it is done.
There
is need for a reawakening to ensure only trained personnel are allowed to practice.
You will agree with me that insurance services are being rendered by persons
and bodies without adequate training. We must embrace professionalism as core
value in our industry. To achieve that
we must train all persons that carry our flags to our consumers.
As the Professional arm of the
industry, indiscipline and unethical practices by your members should be of
grave concern to the institute. Insurance practitioners and professionals
should be seen to uphold the tenets of the profession both in their words and
actions. It is not enough for the Institute to breed and certify insurance
professionals only, but must also ensure that they are regularly
updated through training and retraining to enable them measure up with current global
trends.
Training
should be of paramount importance to the institute for the development of practitioners.
To this end we already have held preliminary discussion with the Rector of the
Centre for Insurance and Financial Management Studies (CIFMS) towards
developing acceptable curriculum for the training of different level of
practitioners and an annual mandatory refreshers training thereafter.
I
would want to see the institute become a one stop shop for the teaching of good
ethics and building good characters as it relates to the practice of insurance.Insurance
practitionersshould always imbibe the spirit of professionalism in their
dealings.
If
we truly practice as professionals that we say we are, we should be mindful of our
actions and how we carry ourselves. We should be seen as men and women of
proven integrity, we should avoid unethical practices because it will not only
send bad signals to the public, it will further erode the little respect left.
Perhaps,
by these remarks, I may have started setting the agenda for the in-coming
President and Chairman of Council. LadyChukwumais a woman well known within the
industry and beyond, and I believe she would be able to consolidate on the
achievements of her predecessor as well as confront the various challenges
bedeviling the industry at the moment.
I have knownLady Chukwuma as far back
as the early 1990s; I have known her as a thorough bred professional and one that is also deeply concerned on how to defend her
profession. I believe she is in a position to give the insurance industry purposeful and disciplined
leadership. I am also convinced that she has the wherewithal to deliver and I
would like to assure her that she would not lack the requisite support from all
of us individually and from the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) as an
institution to make her tenure a successful one.
For her to succeed, she will also need your (Members)
cooperation. Her success is ultimately the success of the industry and we
should all see it from that view point. In the same vein, if the industry must
make progress, operators must see each other as colleagues and
not enemies. We must step up our game and learn to respect each other and play
by the rules.
The
Commission will continue to support the Institute especially in the areasof new
program designs, development of new curriculum for adequate capacity building,
and in the training and retraining of insurance practitioners. This is a global
practice.
As
we are aware, this is the era of change. The insurance industry certainly
cannot be left behind in the scheme of things. I therefore urge the CIIN to
uphold and encourage its members to adhere strictly to the observance of the
industry’s codes of conduct and ethics for a healthy practice of the insurance
profession.
NAICOM as a regulator is committed to high standard
of professionalism and ethical behaviour in the insurance industry so as to regain
the confidence of policyholders and increase insurance contribution to the GDP.If
we must win the public apathy to the business of insurance we must desist from
unwholesome practices in the discharge of our responsibilities to the insured
by playing as true professionals.
On a final note, I am confident
the President would improve and add value to what her predecessors have
achieved.I pray that Almighty God grants her wisdom to lead us well, Amin.
I wish you a successful tenure.
Thank
You
Mohammed
Kari
Commissioner for Insurance/CE
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