BY NGOZI ONYEAKUSI

President of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers, Mrs. Ekeoma Ezeibe in handshake with the Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Ambassador Aminu Mohammed Dalhatu, during a courtesy visit of Nigerian delegates to the High Commissioner in London

The Nigerian High Commission in the United Kingdom has passed a vote of confidence on the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers, describing the Council’s yearly visit to the British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA) Conference as a selling point for the Nigerian brand.

Speaking while receiving in audience the delegation of the NCRIB, led by its president, Mrs. Ekeoma Ezeibe, the Nigerian High Commissioner to the UK, Ambassador Aminu Mohammed Dalhatu, noted that the continuous representation of Nigeria at the yearly BIBA Conference, coupled with the professional input into the Association’s programme content has inched up the image of Nigeria and projected the Council’s delegates as proud specimen of the ideal Nigerian citizens.

He said the High Commission was quite delighted that since the attendance of the BIBA Conference by the NCRIB delegation there had not been any recorded case of breaches of international travel protocols, stating that it was a standard that all institutions and individuals visiting the UK should emulate, to enhance the good reputation of the country.

Ambassador Dalhatu stressed that the Council’s delegation was the first group to be received by him on assumption of office and disclosed that record had shown that the NCRIB delegates usually notified the Commission of their presence in the UK anytime it needed to be in country for the BIBA Conference, stating that that was what was required of every responsible institutions or groups visiting the UK from Nigeria.

“The continuous presence of the NCRIB on a yearly basis is helping to change the narrative about Nigeria and more of similar visits was expected from reputable institutions, in a bid to change the negative narrative about the Nigerian nation and its good citizens”, noted Dalhatu.

He specifically applauded the significant transformation taking place in the Nigerian insurance industry through the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA 2025) and averred that with the new law the insurance industry would be revolutionized and empowered to play its roles in the much desired economic transformation of the country.

Ambassador Dalhatu said he was enthused that the Nigerian insurance industry had, in the past, produced great minds such as Olola Olabode Ogunlana, the first Nigerian Managing Director of the National Insurance Corporation (NICON), and the iconic Professor Joe Irukwu, among others.

Earlier, the NCRIB President, Mrs. Ekeoma Ezeibe said that the Council, being an affiliate of BIBA had seen the need to attend its yearly conferences in a bid to give opportunities to delegates to cross-fertilise ideas and deepen the knowledge base of the insurance industry in Nigeria.

She said that the Council particularly had a rewarding session at the previous year’s BIBA with the conferment of Lifetime Achievement Award on the Doyen of Insurance in Nigeria, Olola Olabode Ogunlana, for the rare feat of having practiced insurance for 73 unbroken years.