Revolution to hit insurance industry soon - Soladoye

Chuks Udo Okonta

A trigger to pull revolutionary process in the insurance industry and send all operators to their drawing board, would strike in the next four to six months, the Managing Director Riskguard-Africa Nigeria Limited and Consultant to the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) Yemi Soladoye, has revealed.

Soladoye, told Inspen in exclusive telephone interview, that the industry would soon witness a revolutionary transformation that would launch it into the multi-trillion naira business regime.

He noted that the industry in past 90 years has been moving within a system and that the problems that have stalled the industry's growth had been identified and solution evolved to address them.

He said: "Looking at our level, what we need is revolutionary process and for that to take place, there must be a trigger from within or a threat from outside the industry.

"Incidentally, I think we are going to have a trigger from within in the next four to six months. It would come in the area of service, product and marketing. A new approach is going to be dictated, and it would make all other insurance companies go back to the drawing board.

"In essence, I think the problems with the industry has been appreciated and they are being addressed in a revolutionary manner. The revolutionary process would take the industry in a supersonic manner into the multi-trillion naira regime."

He said a threat from without which would also move the industry on a supersonic speed, would happen when NAICOM appreciates the fact that insurance should not be distributed only through the traditional distribution channel.

He noted that the threat would open up the sales of insurance products in places like shoprite, cooperative societies and megaplaza and others, adding that when NAICOM is confidence enough to open the door for retail marketing there would be tremendous growth in the industry.

Soladoye said every problem in the industry is a manifestation of the refusal by the operators to adopt retail as a business policy, stressing that the board of the various insurance companies, as a matter of urgency, should compel their management team to adopt retail marketing as their core business drive.

"The operators are into the problem of unhealthy competition because they boxed themselve into a very narrow distribution outlet, which is broking market. In any situation, price becomes the only competitative strategy, when people are not adding value," he added.