Kari: Some Insurance Firms Are Too Financially Feeble

The Commissioner for Insurance, Alhaji Mohammed Kari, has said that some insurance firms operating in Nigeria are financially too weak. He also noted that these firms that are too financially feeble to operate are violating rules and regulations of the insurance industry in their bid to raise money for workers’ salaries.

Kari, made the remark in his keynote address at the 2017 Insurance Professionals’ Forum held in Abeokuta. Ogun State.

He said: “Insurance institutions must therefore review and where necessary, enhance their capital, risk management and governance in order to survive the interesting future ahead. Barring hindrances such as high costs of

implementation, paucity of requisite data and skills and political obstacles; we posit that an intelligence implementation of a strategic consolidation in Nigeria will boost the overall performance of the industry and position it as one of the foremost in the continent”.

Kari, who noted that his remarks should not be mistaken for another call for recapitalisation and consolidation exercise in the industry also said that the Nigerian insurance market deserves to be reckoned with internationally hence the need for operators to cooperate with each other.

According to him, “Our market by all standard deserves to be reckoned with in the International playground of insurance, but how can we when we operate in uncoordinated silos. We have to wake up, sort ourselves out and be ready to play our role at least in the sub-region.”

He lamented that the conduct of some of Nigeria’s insurance professionals is to say the least, appalling even as he urged the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria, (CIIN) to take a critical look at the development with a view to coming up with measures to arrest it.

“We look forward to a day when a professional will be de-certified by the Institute for unprofessional conduct. Cases abound around us in other professions where the privileges of a practitioner are withdrawn for some unacceptable act in his calling”, he observed.

The Commissioner said when the President of CIIN, Funmi Babington -Ashaye and some members of her team visited his office in Abuja, he emphasised on the need to ensure members of the institute uphold the ethics of the profession.

He therefore called on the CIIN to review its Code of Conduct for members in order to be in tune with the current international best practice.

“There is obvious need to enforce discipline in the system and there cannot be a better a place to start than from the members of the Institute. In the spirit of self-regulation, the Commission therefore demands that the Institute gives an accelerated attention and incept the process of reviewing and enforcing the Code of Conduct for members, failure of which we would be left no option but to enforce it as contained the law”, he said.

Babington-Ashaye, on her part, said the theme of this year’s forum, ‘Solvency, Stability and Growth- Exploring Possibilities’, was specially and carefully chosen to draw attention to some of the critical challenges currently facing the insurance industry so that operators can evolve strategic solutions for the benefit of the industry.

She noted that when the economy was growing at an impressive rate and prospering, all sectors, including the insurance industry, also flourished.

According to her, similarly, since the economy has been experiencing serious macroeconomic challenges which currently manifest in sharp drop in productive and economic activities, high unemployment and crime rates, delinquent credit facilities and failure of many businesses, the insurance business is inevitably affected.

She noted that the need to meet insurance obligations have actually increased with these challenges.