Meet The New NIA Chairman, Mr. Kunle Ahmed

Kunle Ahmed is the new Chairman of the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), the umbrella body of all registered insurance and reinsurance companies operating in Nigeria. He was unanimously elected as the 26th Chairman of the Association on June 27, 2024.

Prior to his election, he joined the Governing Council of the Association in 2018 and served the Council in various capacities, including Honorary Treasurer; Chairman of the Finance & Investment Committee; Deputy Chairman and Chairman of the Association’s Technical Committee.

 Kunle Ahmed was born on July 11, 1965, at the Island Maternity Hospital Lagos to the family of Alhaji Ahmed Okanlawon and Mrs. Ebunoluwa Ahmed. He is the second child out of nine children.

He had a very humble beginning – Growing up in the Alafia Lane area in Shomolu, Lagos, he was enrolled at St Peter & Paul UNA Primary School, Morocco Road Lagos, for his primary school education. Being a child of parents who are traders, Kunle (and all his siblings) was introduced to the business of buying and selling very early in life. His early exposure to the art of making money boosted his ability to be resilient and independent.

After his primary school education, he wrote the common entrance examination and was admitted to the Ansarudeen College Surulere, Lagos. His father was not in support of Kunle’s continuing his education in Lagos. He believed living away from your parents toughens a child, ensures focus, and reinforces the ability to be resilient. Kunle was, therefore, ‘shipped’ to Kwara State, where he attended Ilala Primary School and sat again for the common entrance examination. He was admitted to the Federal Government College Ilorin and Government Secondary School Omu Aran. He chose the latter school. Boarding school life, including the need to stick with bullying by senior students, the cutting of grass, and general corporal punishments, were all new to him. But he adapted and went on to excel in both academics and extracurricular activities, passed his WAEC examination in flying colours, and represented the school in various competitions as a member of the school football and handball teams.

Kunle’s preferred course was mass communication, but he had to choose the University of Ilorin for its stable academic calendar to study Sociology and graduated with Second Class Honors Lower Division. Upon graduation, he was posted to Oyo State for his National Youth Service, where he taught at Ejigbo High School, Ejigbo, now Osun State.

After youth service, Kunle briefly joined the family business. However, due to his determination to chart his own course, he left within a year to join Libran Limited, a finance company, as a treasury officer. Within a year of joining Libran Limited, he was promoted twice, in recognition of his dedication to duty and consistent delivery on set targets. The finance company became less challenging for Kunle after a short period, and he started searching for other opportunities, particularly in the banking sector.

However, fate had a different plan for him. In order to buy time before landing his preferred job, Kunle applied and got a role in the Industrial & General Insurance Company (IGI) in 1994; the rest, as they say, is now history. He started in the Marketing department before being transferred to the Oil & Energy department, where he had the opportunity to learn on the job and attended several trainings in the United Kingdom and South Africa.

Being an accidental insurer and in order to improve his knowledge in the profession he found himself, Kunle enrolled for an Executive Diploma in Insurance at the University of Lagos, and he graduated with Upper Credit. He equally attended the West African Insurance Institute (WAII) in The Gambia, where he graduated as the best graduating student winning  five of the available eight prizes during the graduation ceremony. Kunle rose through the ranks in IGI and left in 2004 as a Manager in the Oil & Energy team.

Kunle joined Heritage Assurance Limited, now AXA Mansard Insurance in 2004. Over the last 20 years, Kunle has served AXA Mansard Insurance in various capacities. He resumed as the Head of the Energy Team in Lagos before being posted to Port Harcourt to start the company’s South-East/South-South operations. A year later, he was saddled with the responsibility of starting the company’s Abuja/Northern operations and rose to become the Group Head, Regional Offices Group. He was posted back to Lagos in 2008 as the Head of Energy Group.

He was appointed Divisional Director, Institutional Business Division in 2011 with the responsibility for corporate sales and managing the relationships with corporate customers across Communication, Logistics, Manufacturing, Oil & Gas, Public Sector and Financial Services Institutions. He was invited to the board as an Executive Director in 2012 and he became the company’s Crisis Leader, and Chairman of the Risk Management Committee and managed the corporate sales and underwriting activities of the company.

In 2017, Kunle was appointed Chief Executive Officer of AXA Mansard Insurance.

He is an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute, London (CII) and achieved the qualification within one year of sitting for the examinations. He is also an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN). Kunle is also an alumnus of both IMD Switzerland and the Lagos Business School.

Kunle currently serves on the board of companies and Pools across HMO, Oil & Gas, Academic, Computers, Industry Associations, and the Chamber of Commerce. He is a Board Member of AXA Mansard Health Limited; EMOCOM Computer Services Limited; a member of the Academic Board of the West African Insurance Institute (WAII) Gambia; Vice Chairman of Prudential Committee, Nigeria Insurers Committee; Board Member, Africa Oil & Gas Pool; Vice President, French Nigerian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FNCCI); National Bureau Chairman, ECOWAS Brown Card and Governing Council member of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria.

Kunle is a member of Ikoyi Club 1938 and Capital Club Lagos. He is married to Adedotun, and they are blessed with children.