Stakeholders fault FG’S position on NAICOM'S 50% IGR remittance

STAKEHOLDERS in the insurance industry have called on the federal government to reconsider its directive to the National Insurance Commission ( NAICOM) to remit 50 per cent of its internally generated revenue ( IGR) to the federation account.

Recall that a policy of compulsory 50 per cent deduction from the IGR of all government enterprises was introduced by the government as part of efforts to increase revenue and plug leakages in revenue collection.

Speaking on the development, the President of the Council, of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers ( NCRIB), Babatunde Oguntade, said the insurance supervisory fund levy being paid by insurance institutions is meant for the regulatory supervision and market development drive.

Oguntade said: “Placing the insurance supervisory fund levy within the single treasury account system would hold back the financial solvency position of the commission and ostensibly hinder the market's muchdesired insurance growth in the country.”

The NCRIB President noted that the insurance industry, which should be the linchpin of the economic revival efforts of the government in Nigeria, was currently fragile.

He also called on lawmakers to work expeditiously on the passage of the 2022 Consolidated Insurance Bill, which when passed into law, would cure the various inadequacies in the existing Insurance Act 2003 and the 1997 NAICOM Act, for the steady growth of the industry.”

Oguntade expressed concerns that government institutions were lax in ensuring that the human and material assets of the government were adequately insured.