Joyce Ojemudia,

Text of the Speech to be delivered at the NAIPCO AGM on Thursday, 8th July, 2021 on behalf of Mrs Joyce Ojemudia, MD/CEO, African Alliance Insurance PLC by Mr Emmanuel Eburajolor, Head, Corporate Marketing, African Alliance

Members of the National Association of Insurance and Pension Correspondents,
Fellow professionals in the Insurance industry here present,
Friends of NAIPCO,
Ladies and gentlemen,

I thank the leadership of NAIPCO for giving me this platform to address this elite body of professionals who do the most to ensure our industry is well and rightly communicated to our teeming stakeholders across board. I would specially thank the current Chairman, the award-winning Mr Chuks Okonta and his executives for steering the ship to safer harbours at this time. As with any successful organisation, the labours of heroes past always comes to bear on the successes of today. In that light, I would like to recognise my dear Egbon, the Ogbuefi himself, Mr Rowland Okoro and other forebears of this association; I also recognise other past Chairs of NAIPCO, my friend, Mr Modestus Anaesoronye, Mrs Omobola Tolu-Kusimo and everyone who has served this organisation at one point or the other. Like they say, a leader who thinks he leads without followers is only taking a stroll. I shall therefore at this point quickly recognise every member of this 32-man strong organisation across various Media Houses for providing an excellent responsibility check for the leadership as well as being a veritable pool of leaders for the organisation.

Today, I stand here in my dual capacity as the MD/CEO of Nigeria’s oldest indigenous owned life insurer, African Alliance Insurance as well as the President of the prosperous Professional Insurance Ladies Association (PILA). I bring the goodwill of the legacy insurer as well as that of the Forthright Ladies to you as you deliberate at this AGM.

We all agree you are the loudspeakers of our industry. Without you, whatever goes on in our industry would go largely unnoticed and unreported, pretty much like someone winking in the dark. But this is not an easy task, being gatekeepers for an industry that is older than Nigeria as we know it, with various interests and mindsets. However, someone has to do it, and I daresay you are doing very well. But can we do better? Yes we can. Even the best of outcomes can get better. From where I stand, what do I think can be done better?

First, customer-focused collaboration has to get better. And when I talk about collaborations, I do not mean with the usual suspects. Yes, you collaborate with NAICOM, the NIA both directly and indirectly through CAMCONIA, and then directly with Insurance companies but where are the people our customers in all of these? Is it just about us working together and isolating the consuming public? When will NAIPCO, for example, ideate, fund and run a wholly consumer focused media drive? Call it your organisation’s corporate social drive, but it is time NAIPCO was found active in this space. The NIA has spent a lot of money on Insurance education, same with NAICOM, we await NAIPCO’s bit. My people, when will we see you work with,say University Insurance Students Association, to help spread the gospel of insurance? We indeed can do better.

Second, and I am glad this is taking better roots. This is about digital adoption. Everyone has a website now and gone are the days we would need for Nike or Bankole to publish in Punch or Guardian before our stakeholders know what we do. From the Chairman himself and his Inspenonline, to my sister, Nkechi’s BusinessTodayNG and to SuperNews, to The Revealer and so on, your members have taken the game to the digital space. But how optimised are these sites? How navigation friendly are they? How is the look and feel? Can we honestly say we have the very best we can? Beyond those, why aren’t we embracing a viable email marketing tool to drive traffic to these sites and encourage virability? How many of us have active and vibrant social media presence? I rarely see any thought leadership from this association both as a body and as members anywhere. My people, we can do better.

I have not come to take your time, just to felicitate with you today and also drop my two kobo thoughts on NAIPCO. I trust you will mull on these and make proper adjustments as time goes on. For verily I say unto you, we can do better.

Thank you for listening to me. I hope I have been able to deliver better to this AGM. Do enjoy a fruitful deliberations.

Good morning.