By Ngozi Onyeakusi– In a bid to ensure that indigenous underwriting firms participate optimally in the oil and gas insurance business, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has urged insurance companies to boost their capacity in order to be able to underwrite huge risks.
The commission equally urged the industry to invest handsomely in technology, noting that it was one of the key drivers for developing the market.

The Commissioner for Insurance, Mr Sunday Thomas, who gave the admonition said the essence of the local content law is not being realised in the insurance sector because many businesses in the aviation and oil and gas sectors were being reinsured abroad.

Speaking at insurance directors’ conference in Lagos, insisted that operators in the industry must strengthen their human and financial capital for effective participation in big-ticket risks.
According Thomas, “It has been observed that the gains of domestication policy of the government as enshrined in the Nigerian Content Development Act 2010 is gradually losing its meaning for the insurance sector. More businesses, especially in the oil and gas and the aviation sectors, are now been reinsured abroad.”

Another concern, he said, was the declining participation of life companies in the annuity business which was the emerging business for the industry. “These are the areas where the industry can impose itself on the economy through the control of funds for national development,” he said.