Experts To Discuss Role Of Insurance In Aviation At Aviation And Cargo Conference
Olatunde Agbeja, Chairman Boff & Company Insurance Brokers
Insurance experts and core stakeholders have been lined up to engage with aviation and logistics stakeholders at the maiden edition of the Aviation and Cargo Conference (CHINET 21) billed to hold in Lagos from August 25 to 26.
According to the Conveners of this event, Mr Ikechi Uko, Publisher of Atqnews and serial MICE organiser, the conference is long overdue and coming at the right time to change the face of the sector in Nigeria.
He revealed that the speakers who are tested and trusted players in the sector will be led by a lead speaker, Chief Babajide Olatunde-Agbeja Chairman Boff & Company Insurance Brokers Ltd, to deliberate on the Role of Insurance in the Aviation Business.
He explained that the event was fired by the incessant complaints among aviation stakeholders that insurance companies in Nigeria on the lack of capacity to handle aviation business in Nigeria.
“These complaints include the high premiums paid by Nigerian airlines to foreign insurance companies which keep rising every year because of presumed country risk issues where airlines claim that the high cost of insurance is passed onto the passengers and the Nigerian economy is also not benefiting from the prevailing system.”
He pointed that Chief Olatunde-Agbeja, the lead speaker will be bringing his over 40 years wealth of experience at the in Insurance Brokerage to the conference.
“He will be supported by leading insurance companies and their chief executives with the question and answers sessions to effectively engage the players in the entire aviation value chain.
“The conference will have the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aviation Senator Smart Adeyemi and his House of Reps Committee counterpart Honorable Nnolim Nnaji as special guests of honour.”
With the involvement of more stakeholders who are signing up for the Aviation, Cargo and Export Conference in Nigeria, the organisers said only registered delegates would be allowed into the venue, because of the COVID-19 protocols in Lagos State.
Also the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) and the Nigerian Export Processing Zone Authority (NEPZA) will be making presentations on how exporters can be assisted to up their game through aviation.
NEPZA will be at CHINET to showcase the opportunities available to Investors at the Airports. NEPC and NEPZA will be joining the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and Ethiopian Airlines as major partners of the first Aviacargo event in Nigeria.
“The two leading aviation cargo and logistics companies in Nigeria NAHCO and SAHCO will be major players at this event along with many airlines, logistics and global financial service companies.
“Nigeria, a country with over 200 million resourceful people depends a lot on imports which has been eroding the national wealth. A lot of airlines bring freighters fully laden daily to Nigeria and most of them fly out empty.
“There is, therefore, a need to reverse this dysfunctional scenario as Nigeria needs to export more and aviation stand the chance to increasing exports.
The conference which will have an Exhibition part will be broken into three sessions in the two-day CHINET event. The aviation aspect will have a presentation and panel discussion on ‘airlines, airports and aviation’ experts including airline CEOs, past airport CEOs and aviators will discuss the reasons why our airlines and airport systems have not delivered the best possible outcomes for aviation in Nigeria.
The second section on cargo will be a presentation and panel discussions on the cargo and logistics value chain the challenges of scale and the opportunities available.
The third part will be on export, a session on how to scale up our export capacity, how to remove the impediments and improve our access and market penetration globally?
“There will be a support session on insurance and financing of aviation, cargo and export in Nigeria.
“At the end of the two-day event, we will be leaving the event with enough Knowledge about the current aviation situation in the country and its role in growing the economy by driving bigger cargo export from Nigeria.
“With this understanding of the cargo and export systems, we can integrate our systems by networking and learning from each other as problems shared eventually become problems solved” Uko added.
