DISAGREEMENT IN NIGERIA ABOUT STATE OF INSURANCE INDUSTRY

The immediate past president of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) has expressed his disagreement with the comments of the Minister of State for Finance on the state of the Nigerian insurance industry. Last month the minister, Yerima Ngama, said that new licences would not be granted because there were a large number of insurers "that are just on the shelf and distressed". Wole Adetimehim, ex-head of the CIIN, said this week that "it was unfortunate that the minister could make such a blanket statement in public about the industry when the regulators and practitioners are battling seriously for the industry to perform optimally". Dr Adetimehim also commented that the plan to discontinue budgetary allocation to the insurance regulator NAICOM, announced by Dr Ngama and supported by NAICOM boss Fola Daniel, should be looked at "critically", Mr Adetimehim said. It would add to insurers' overheads, impact the bottom line, reduce capital and, he claimed, most importantly, "it would result to staff rationalisation in the industry".