NCRIB, Nollywood In Partnership Talks
L-R: Tope Adaramola, Executive Secretary, NCRIB; Ekeoma Ezeibe, Vice President, NCRIB; Tunde Oguntade, Deputy President, NCRIB; Rotimi Edu, President, NCRIB; Benedict U. Ujoatuonu, Managing Director/CEO, Universal Insurance Plc, and Michael Olawale-Cole, President, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, during the NCRIB members’ evening sponsored by Universal Insurance Plc, in Lagos on Tuesday
The Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) the umbrella body for all Insurance Brokers in Nigeria and the Nigerian Film industry (Nollywood) are discussing how to synergize in order to boost each other’s business.
Speaking at the April edition of the NCRIB Members’ Evening sponsored by the Universal Insurance recently in Lagos, the former President, Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) and Special Guest of Honour, Segun Arinze, called on Insurers to come to the aid of Nollywood members.
The Nollywood star who expressed worrisome that many of them do not believe that insurance can cover them charged insurers to create robust insurance packages that will take care of Nollywood members’ operations.
According to him, “It is so worrisome for us in the industry because some of us do not believe that insurance can cover us…”
Segun Arinze who described the situation as unfortunate called on insurers to do something about Nollywood in order to save them from unfortunate occurrences.
L-R: Segun Arinze, Nollywood actor and Special guest discussing with Paulinus Oluchukwu Offorzor, Executive Director, Technical, Universal Insurance
While inviting insurers to avail themselves of the existing opportunities in the Nollywood industry which he described as ‘large’ and ‘humongous’ Segun Arinze called on the underwriters to send their proposal to the Nollywood industry for study and consideration.
“Bring your proposal and let’s see what you can offer. There are lots of opportunities in Nollywood. Nollywood is a very large and humongous market. Come with your package, we will sit with members of the industry and say, this is a new dawn, this is a new beginning, as members of Nollywood let’s begin to adopt insurance. If you come on board with your proposal, I with my colleagues will find a way to push it,” he promised.
Arinze said Nollywood is a very big industry with so many professionals including Actors, Directors, Writers, Cameramen, Director of Photography, DOP, and Production Managers, adding that each of these people I have mentioned has different fields and associations.
Meanwhile, while responding to Arinze’s short presentation, NCRIB President, Mr Rotimi Edu, also requested that the Nollywood star should use his position as a scriptwriter to write an insurance story and have it acted to help drive insurance penetration and acceptance in Nigeria.
It would be recalled that Segun Arinze had, during the launch of ‘The Good Life’ awareness campaign by Stanbic IBTC Life Insurance Limited in Lagos called on insurers to urgently reach out to practitioners in the entertainment sector and educate them on the need to secure their lives and properties with insurance.
He also stated that members of Nollywood are tired of donating to members with health challenges, noting that insurance as a risk-mitigating instrument would help cater for the medical bills of members who have critical health challenges.
