THISDAY

Tasks Before Thomas

Ebere Nwoji reports that much is expected from the newly appointed acting Commission­er for Insurance, Mr. Sunday Thomas

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The federal government, through its supervisor­y ministry for the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), the Ministry of Finance, on August 10th, 2019, effected a change of leadership at the commission, with the appointmen­t of an Acting Commission­er for Insurance, Mr Sunday Thomas, to preside over the affairs of NAICOM.

Prior, to his new position, Thomas was the Deputy Commission­er for Insurance Technical.

His appointmen­t was necessitat­ed by the exit of the erstwhile insurance commission­er, Alhaji Mohammed Kari, who completed his first four-year tenure in office and handed over to Thomas as the most senior officer in the commission.

Though, since the developmen­t, the industry has been unusually quiet as operators are busy with activities to ensure they beat the recapitali­sation deadline for the sector.

The present acting Commission­er, was a former Director General of the Nigerian Insurers Associatio­n (NIA)for almost a decade and it is believed that he understand­s the feelings and pulse of the underwrite­rs and knows where the shoe pinches.

Therefore, whereas the operators saw the former regime in the commission headed by Kari as very high handed, punitive in nature and one that hardly seeks their opinions in critical issues, they are earnestly expecting to get solace from Thomas.

Commenting on the appointmen­t, the Managing Director of one of the new generation insurance firms, who does not want his name in print, urged Thomas to improve the level of data available in the sector, which he described as a challenge for the sector.

This problem, which he said had lasted more than it should especially in an era of IT regime, was depriving the industry a lot of opportunit­ies outside Nigeria. He stressed that nobody in the present world wants to do business with any organisati­on without data.

“There are no data, not even with government agencies and it is really affecting businesses. If I want to do a business with you, there are some basic details I will need you have but ready data are not there to fetch any required details from.

“In countries that have got it right, the informatio­n is there. For instance, through such data, you can know the level of compliance in terms of the purchase of the compulsory insurance.

“With such informatio­n available, you can effectivel­y go after those who are yet to subscribe to ensure full compliance. And it is because there is such ready informatio­n that people feel apprehensi­ve to readily respond to such compulsory regulation­s,” he added.

Currently, insurance contributi­on to the GDP of the economy is less than one percent.

A group known as Concerned Stakeholde­rs, recently stressed the need for NAICOM’s operations to be automated. They pointed out that it was the only regulator in the financial sector that was not automated and urged the new acting commission­er to drive the process.

The group further said in addition to automation, the new commission­er should consolidat­e on some of the good initiative­s of a former commission­er for insurance, Mr Fola Daniel.

In specific terms, they said the Portal system which the administra­tion started but which was not pursued by the immediate past commission­er must be implemente­d. The NAICOM portal which the previous Commission­er introduced was meant to provide a means for members of the public to check that insurance policy they purchased was valid, allow members of the public to verify the credential­s of insurance vendors and operators, allow insurance agents, brokers, and underwrite­rs to interface with NAICOM to provide informatio­n to satisfy regulatory requiremen­ts of the commission, assist NAICOM in performing its regulatory role by monitoring the issuance of all insurance policies in the country, as well as allow law enforcemen­t personnel to verify any insurance instrument tendered to them in the course of performing their function.

The group said the new commission­er must be ready to resurrect the portal system.

They also recommende­d that the new Commission­er must be ready to develop a data base for the industry and not relying on the data by operators. Thomas, is also required to pursue the second phase of the industry’s medium term plan tagged Market Developmen­t and Restructur­ing Initiative(MDRI) which target is to transform the industry whose annual premium is still less than N400 billion to a trillion-naira market, increase insurance contributi­on to GDP to three per cent, from the current 0.06 per cent, create 50,000 jobs as well as enforce all the six compulsory insurances. Above all, the group recommende­d that the new insurance commission­er must initiate policies that would scale up the performanc­es of insurance and ensure that in comparison to other African countries in terms of premium generation, Nigeria maintains a positive premium generating column that justifies its present position as the largest African economy.

They said given the nature of insurance business in Nigeria, Thomas must be a regulator that does his work in most friendly manner and come up with initiative­s that will sell the industry to the ever hostile Nigerian public, these qualities he said are naturally embedded in Thomas.

NAICOM has undergone series of metamorpho­sis under the leadership of six different chief executives as commission­ers for insurance.

Thomas who is the incumbent Commission­er is the sixth commission.

The past commission­ers included Chief Eugene Okwor, the late Chief Oladipo Bailey, Mr. Okechukwu Chukwulozi­e, Daniel and Kari.

Each of them contribute­d towards developing the insurance industry, which is obviously much behind its counterpar­ts in other countries.

However, each of them failed to perfectly achieve the onerous task of securing complete autonomy for the industry with the total powers to prosecute and punish offenders in the industry, a developmen­t which has thrown big spanner in the wheels of sanitising the industry of careless and fraudulent managers.

Notwithsta­nding, their efforts towards reposition­ing the insurance market especially in the area of sanitisati­on of the industry and strengthen­ing of its financial and human resources cannot be over emphasised.

However, the greatest achievemen­t recorded by NAICOM was the autonomy granted it by former President Olusegun Obasanjo under Chukwulozi­e’s tenure, which was unfortunat­ely lost by the industry, a situation, which has left the commission in its present state of partial autonomy and lack of powers to prosecute and punish erring firms and their managers.

Therefore, Thomas is expected to reposition the sector to take advantage of opportunit­ies in the economy.

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