Month: March 2019

The Managing Director of Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation, Mrs. Isioma Chukwuma, said reforms in insurance industry will boost reinsurance businesses, in the long run. Speaking exclusively to Daily Newswatch in Lagos, Chukwuma said though insurance awareness was still low in the country, she believes that all campaigns of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) aimed at repositioning the industry for better would ensure that Nigerians begin to take insurance seriously thus, increasing its consumption among Nigerians.“Unfortunately, insurance penetration and acceptance in the country is still very low. Because of this, the market has not really developed to where it ought to be. The opportunities are there, but because of low insurance awareness and penetration, our rate of growth is not as much as what we expected it to be, when compared to other countries of the world,” she indicated. She added that South Africa and some countries in the East Africa are doing pretty well in reinsurance business in Africa, noting that they have been able to grow and expand their insurance market, such that it creates business opportunities for reinsurance companies.If more Nigerians can buy insurance cover, she stressed that insurance companies will have more businesses that will increase the profitability of companies in the sector. This, she added, will also extend to reinsurance companies, in term of business volume that will enhance reinsurance growth. According to her, “Moreover, as operators begin to increase awareness to improve on insurance mindset of Nigerians, I hope things will improve for better. All the programmes and policies of NAICOM which are aimed at creating this development will yield good result in the near future.”Speaking on the future outlook of insurance industry, Nigeria Re boss said it looks bright, taking into consideration potentials and opportunities in this market. She said it was unfortunate that the industry could not achieve the N1trillion target set by NAICOM. She, however, believes that with the implementation of “No Premium No Cover”, recently made compulsory for all operators by NAICOM, the industry should be able to achieve that target.“If everything is in place and everything is working out as it ought to be,  I am of the opinion that in very near future  we should be able to achieve, if not near, but something closer to the target that has been set for us,” he stressed.She disclosed that the recent mergers and acquisitions in the insurance industry have created lots of opportunities for Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation. She stated that the company was looking at long term opportunities to increase its business volume and profit. “We are looking at long-term opportunities that we can take advantage of, to increase our business volume and be able to stamp our feet in re-insurance market.We have been in the market for quite a long time and we are flag-bearer of reinsurance business in the country. But for now, we are still trying to improve on our own market share of what is available,” she noted.

Premier indigenous rein­surance company in Ni­geria, Nigeria Reinsur­ance Corporation (Nigeria Re) said it has set a new strategic direction for the company in a bid to reclaim and sustain its leadership in the reinsurance market. The company said this pro­pelling objective requires an urgent strategic roadmap for projecting the new possibilities in the reinsurance market, and that this need formed the rea­son the Board of the company to embark on a week’s retreat where the new roadmap was rolled out. A statement from the com­pany said the retreat tagged “Strategic Road Map for Nige­ria Reinsurance Corporation” has a time frame of ten years starting from 2014 to 2024 and would be reviewed every five years for improvement where necessary. According to Nigeria Re, the company since it was founded many years ago has continued to provide services that cuts-across risk/general manage­ment in the global market, fac­ultative & treaty underwriting, product development, techni­cal personnel training and leadership development. Nigeria Re, the statement added, provides reinsurance services on property, casualty, oil & gas/energy, engineering, bond, aviation, marine and life risks with coverage in Africa, Middle East and Asia. “The new roadmap, with the charge, to be a profitable global player in the reinsurance mar­ket is designed to place Nigeria Re back on track among the leading reinsurance compa­nies in the world. The compa­ny’s new mission statement is to strategically align internal and external partnerships ef­fectively using loyalty princi­ples as a guiding key towards the realisation of the charge”, the statement said. Managing Director of the company, Lady Isioma Chuk­wuma, in the statement, said the execution of the new strat­egies has begun with the cre­ation of a new department called critical operations, not­ing the department is divided into three, namely customer loyalty, research and devel­opment and strategic perfor­mance units, and that the or­ganisation’s has since spear headed the implementation of the strategy for the successful realization of the new charge. “The new roadmap is all encompassing- it is designed to create more market for the company, improve customer’s relationship, increase the company’s premium level and improve the visibility of the company. This has already commenced with the com­pany’s advert in the CNN for an initial airing period of one month. Besides this, the man­agement of the organization has packaged special programs specifically for our external partners. These programs will include local and international seminar/lectures, monthly customer loyalty team visits to all our existing and potential customers”, she said.