From left: Director Policy and Regulation, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Mr Pius Agboola; Deputy Commissioner, Technical, Sabiu Bello Abubakar; Thomas; Director, Research, Statistics and Publication, Alhaji Adamu Balanti; and Director Inspectorate, Mr Barineka Thomas during the seminar in Lagos.

By Ngozi Onyeakusi— The Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has said that the Federal Government has earmarked N9.2 billion for 2021 to 2022 financial year for the group life of Federal Government agencies.
The Commissioner for Insurance, Mr Sunday Thomas who stated this while account of his steward after one year in office said the life operations and non-life operations of the sector was expected to grow.
According to him, on 1st September 2020, NAICOM and National Pension Commission (PenCom) jointly issued aguidelines on Retiree Life Annuity and Employee Group Life Insurance Policy. The current pension reach for insurers was achieved by this joint action of NAICOM and PenCom.

Speaking further, he said to ensure that the growth agenda of the commission was not taken by other markets across the world, the NAICOM granted an application for a reinsurance company. “We know that the driver of the economy is the people at the lower level of the pyramid and, therefore, we are taking financial inclusion policy very seriously. While it is a national policy, the insurance sector is far behind but we are doing a lot of catch up. To this effect, two Takaful companies have been licensed in addition to the existing ones. We have four micro insurance company that has also been licensed and two are on the verge of being licensed. We believe that if we are able to properly take care of the supply side, the demand aspect of it is will run smoothly. Similarly, the traditional method of distributing insurance has become inadequate to take care of the speed we want to gain and the people who want to reach and so we must begin to develop other channels of distribution. There are few of them that have been developed and waiting for final touches here and there for them to be released.
“We are conscious of the fact that the sector is a knowledge-based sector and, therefore, human capacity to drive this initiative is critical. The development in the actuarial profession has been on the drawing board for years. The first sets of those who will write the actuarial exam will qualify as certified actuarial analyst. The exam was held last week and I was made to understand that in the next six weeks or so, they will hear the results. We have made a pledge to see the possibility of having about 100 of them in the next four years. It’s a target and we see how far we can go. We believe that we need actuarial analyst to stand in the gap pending the time that we will have sufficient number of actuaries for the market.
“I want to say that we are also conscious that technology drives business. We have started with ourselves at the commission and our automation plans have commenced. We want to see how far we can run within the commission. The plan by the commission to have a portal started about now nine to 10 years ago and until last year, nothing was happening. But we picked it up last year and the first phase of the portal has been successfully completed. On the strategic plan of the commission, the last one ended in 2020. So, we have picked it up from 2021 to 2023. We are following and pursuing it. We believe that with what we have in the plan, we should be able to make a difference in the market.’’
He continued: “One of the a low-hanging fruit is the government business. We know that a lot of government businesses, especially at the states are far from experiencing the benefits of insurance. We want to be engaging the states so that we can draw them closer and bring the consciousness of the benefits of insurance to their doorstep.To this effect, we are committed, especially to the Federal Government agencies, getting the concurrence of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Musa Bello for a guideline that will make it mandatory for agencies to make adequate provision for the insurances. At present, the sum of about N9.2 billion has been set aside for group life of the 2021 to 2022 financial year of Federal Government agencies.
“Companies don’t fail on their own, people make companies to fail. The death of companies most of the time evolve from poor governance structure.Therefore, we are aware, that effective from June 1, the corporate governance guidelines have become effective. This is to make sure that whatever resources that is put in the insurance sector is well protected.
“On capitalisation, what we are doing beyond what has been done is that Risk-Based Supervision (RBS) has become a reality. It’s been in the works for a long time and we have been waiting for it’s taking off. I am happy to announce to you that all that is needed to be done in respect to the RBS has been so substantially done. In one or two months, the first set of risk-based supervision in the market will take off. The relevant persons have been trained, necessary skills have been acquired, instruments that will enable implementation have been developed.”’