WELCOME ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE NIGERIAN COUNCIL OF REGISTERED INSURANCE BROKERS, MR AYODAPO A. SHODERU, FIIN, FCIB AT THE 2014 NATIONAL INSURANCE CONFERENCE

WELCOME ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE NIGERIAN COUNCIL OF REGISTERED INSURANCE BROKERS, MR AYODAPO A. SHODERU, FIIN, FCIB AT THE 2014 NATIONAL INSURANCE CONFERENCE HELD ON WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 22, 2014, AT TRANSCORP HILTON ABUJA.

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Honourable Minister of Finance

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Commissioner for Insurance

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Comptrollers General, NSCDC, Fire Service

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Director General of NEMA, FCT EMA

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His Royal Highness the Idena of Remoland, Oba OmosanyaAkinyemi

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Other Distinguished personalities and Special Guests here present

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Distinguished Colleagues

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Ladies and Gentlemen

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Gentlemen of the Media

I am most delighted to welcome you all to this year’s conference. Let me start by emphasising that this conference is apt and timely, going by recent development in our dear country, Nigeria. Specifically, we have carefully chosen the theme for this conference to address the needful a bogging national issue with a view to bridging the existinggap and boost the industry’s contributions to the nation’s economicdevelopment. Permit me to note that the yearly National Conference of the Council is one of the most attendance conferences by insurance practitioners as well as delegates from other critical segment of the nation’s economy. It is to our credit that ideas ventilated at the fora had in the past constituted significant input into the nation’s policy direction. Suffice it to say that the theme for this year’s National Insurance Conference – Disaster Management- Any Role for Insurance - is very apt.

The choice of Abuja for the Conference is also deliberate and aimed at further entrenching the relevance of NCRIB in the scheme of things, considering the fact that Abuja is the citadel of government.

The Events Organising Committee has chosen the theme of the conference in order to home in the need for the nation to always integrate the industry into disaster management issues. Regretfully, the insurance industry, which has risk mitigation as its major pivot, had often been relegated when it comes to disaster management. The implication is that the recurrently expends colossal sums of money and dissipate considerable energy in providing succour for victims of disasters, instead of leaving the task to insurance practitioners. Several disasters such as the 2012 massive flooding where it was reported that Nigeria lost N2.29 trillion could have been the responsibility shifted to the shoulders of insurance operators.

This conference therefore is to awaken the government and other disaster management organisations to benefits they could derive by bringing the insurance industry closer. I am most delighted to note that this forum promises to be insightful and robust, giving the calibre of highly resourceful practitioners and disaster management operators who have been gathered to do justice to the subject matter.

Similarly, this national discourse will also dwell on Insurance Regulation: The Global Perspective. This is to broaden the horizon of delegates on this highly topical issue and position them to benchmark global regulatory standards. Happily, we have an assemblage of notable regulators, operators and international players who have been invited to form the round table panellists. The Councils take is that the insurance operators should imbibe a paradigm shift from always laying all the blames of regulation or growth at the doorsteps of the nation’s insurance regulatory body. Rather, we are to garner knowledge that will enable us advise the Commission on how regulation is undertaken in other climes to the benefit of the insurance industry.

Specifically, I like to welcome the representative of Ghana Insurance Brokers, Reverend Asante Marfo-Ahenkoro. Expectedly, Reverend Asante who is also the immediate past president of Ghana InsuranceBrokers Association (GIBA) is going to avail operators with his vast repertoire of insurance regulatory skill garnered over the years,internationally.

Before I end my address, please permit me to reemphasis the resolve of the NCRIB to remain an ethical and highly professional organisation. In this vein, we have strived to improve on our service delivery to members. We are poised to entrench a Service Charter that will make the Council a League of Reputable Insurance Broking Professionals in Nigeria.

My assurance is that this conference will be delightful and memorable, more so that it will climax with a Closing Dinner in the evening, where members will unwind, wine and dine in a much more relaxed atmosphere.

I thank you all for coming and wishing you a resourceful conference.

Ayodapo A. Shoderu, FIIN, FCIB

PRESIDENT/CHAIRMAN GOVERNING BOARD