*Agboola *

It is my pleasure to welcome all to the 2nd meeting of the College of Insurance Supervisors of the West African Monetary Zone (CISWAMZ). Recall that the 1st meeting of the College took place virtually in February, 2022. The coming together of the Member States of the College would afford us the opportunity to know one another, interact together and harmonise our thoughts of the present and future scope of operation and activities of the College.

 

APPRECIATION

The desire to establish the College of Insurance Supervisors of the West African Monetary Zone dated back many years ago.

There was no progress made until the present Commissioner for Insurance, Nigeria and the Chairman of the West African Insurance Supervisors Association (WAISA), Mr. Olorundare Sunday Thomas, took over the mantle of the WAISA’s Leadership. There is no doubt, the current Chairman of WAISA, Mr. Olorudare Sunday Thomas is a goal getter and great achiever. He is highly diligently, pro-active and with him, nothing is impossible. Therefore, on behalf of my Colleagues, I wish to appreciate you sir for this noble achievement.

I also wish to appreciate other Commissioners of WAISA, whom without their support, the noble achievement of establishing the College would not have been achieved.

The role played by the Secretariat of WAMI in harmonizing the idea and perfecting the set-up of the College cannot be over emphasised. I therefore express my appreciation to the DG of WAMI, MR Olorunsola Olowofeso and the entire Officers of WAMI for their support and co-operation. The College’s contact officer at WAMI, in person of Dr Augustine Njunwa, has been very supportive, we say thank you so much.

 

INSURANCE BUSINESS IS NOT DONE IN ISOLATION

Insurance business evolved through the desire of entrepreneur to curtail the negative effects of the risk materializing. Hence, that is why Insurance is regarded as a risk transfer mechanism. A business that exist to ensure the survival of other businesses.

The entrepreneur who establishes an Insurance business or Company may choose to stay small, serving the local markets. Alternatively, the companies may not have the options to stay small as there are so many other factors that could make each company to expand and go beyond the shores of the jurisdictions and these factors can be categorized into; push or pull factors.

Push factors include;

  • Risk diversification
  • Declining opportunities in the home jurisdiction, and
  • The need for consolidations, etc.

Pull factors include;

  • The need to follow their clients abroad which is common in the oil and gas sector
  • Expected benefits (i.e. large profit margin)
  • Available unutilized potentials, etc.

The special nature of Insurance and the fact that it is a business in the financial sector entails that it is highly regulated in the jurisdiction of operation. As the business expends beyond the jurisdiction of establishment or operation, the need for bi-regional or multi-regional co-operation and/or understanding grew. Hence, the need for this regional integration called College of Insurance Supervisors of the West African Monetary Zone. The College is also established to Complement and implement the ideas, Projects and directives of the parent body – WAISA.

The scope for Inter-regional (international co-operation is very wide. And since this is not a paper presentation, I do not need to go into this. More importantly, the mandates of the college is one of the presentations scheduled for this program to be handled by a very competent officer of National Insurance Commission of Nigeria, Mr. Jankara Usman, Assistant Director (Corporate Strategy, and Special Duty)

 

CISWAMZ PROGRAM FOR THE 2ND MEETING

I have gone through the program scheduled for the College 2nd Meeting, and I can confirm that it is very rich in contents. The starting point of any Group is a better understanding of their mandate which is the first presentation of this Meeting. The various templates we planned to develop – template for presenting countries report, template for implementation of regulatory standard and presentation of Governors’ Convergence Council directives and template for Financial Stability Report are Permanent documents that require joint discussion, agreement and understanding.

The last paper for this Meeting which is scheduled for the 3rd day is the sharing of Nigeria’s experience on Risk Based Approach of Onsite Examination. I am very sure that the member states will have some take – away from the presentation. The hosting of the Regional RBS by NAICOM and Toronto Centre, Canada in February,2022 has enriched our understanding of the Risk Based Supervision and / or Risk Based Capital. Nigeria would be glad to share the RBS Framework for Insurers and Reinsurers in Nigeria with member states. I wish to assure you that NAICOM, Nigeria is ready and available to assist any member state in developing their RBS frame work, RBS manual and for knowledge sharing.

 

YOU ARE SPECIAL

I want to sincerely welcome all the delegates and other participants to this 2nd meeting of the college.

So many activities have been programmed for this 2nd meeting of the college as stated in the previous paragraph which would be of great benefits to us all and therefore let us make the best use of it. However, it is good to inform you that Abuja is a cool and beautiful city, thus you should make time to relax and move round for the maximum use of your time and money.

I wish to welcome and recognise every other participant in this program. For you to be here today, I want to say you are very special.

To everyone, I say Welcome, Ekabo, Nnoo, Sanu-desua, Bienvenue, De nada etc. If I have not mentioned your language, please greet yourself in your local dialect –  WELCOME

 

Thanks

 

AGBOOLA PIUS

Chiarman, CISWAMZ