NAICOM Seeks Partnership With NGF To Domesticate Insurance Laws In 36 States Of Nigeria
The Commissioner for Insurance and Chief Executive of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Mr. Olusegun Omosehin, is seeking partnership with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) to ensure the domestication of compulsory insurance laws in the laws of the 36 States of the Federation.
This was the fallout of NAICOM CEO’s visit on Friday 30th August, 2024 to the Director General of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum Dr. Abdulateef Shittu at the NGF Secretariat in Abuja.
Omosehin said that the fragmented approach in dealing with the states needs to be centralized and have all the states come on board especially with respect to motor third insurance and also to prevent revenue loss for the states in terms of IGR, adding that there is also need for awareness creation across the states on the value of insurance.
Mr Omosehin while thanking the NGF DG also briefed the gathering on the core mandate of the National Insurance Commission which is supervising, regulating and developing the Insurance sector in Nigeria, which involves how the culture of insurance can be deepened by getting the Nation as a whole to comply with some of the compulsory Insurances as provided in the Law.
He noted that at the Federal level these is being driven by Federal agencies but at the states level the Commission needs some high level of cooperation and collaboration.
He stated that the key reason the Commission was at the NGF secretariat is to discuss how a coordinated approach can be adopted in working with the states and that the collaboration must start from engaging the NGF Secretariat as policy hub for the state Governors.
NAICOM boss stated that since he was appointed Commissioner for Insurance/CEO of NAICOM few months back, he and his team have been trying to see how they can address some of the issues differently from the way it has been handled in the past in order to achieve a better result.
He mentioned that the Commission chose to start with the NGF, where NAICOM could have an engagement with the secretariat and share ideas.
The CFI further stated the need for most of the Laws on compulsory insurances to be domesticated by the states sighting example with Lagos State.
While welcoming the Management of NAICOM, NGF Director General informed them that the NGF has transformed into a policy hub for the state Governors and is serving as the Technical and administrative arm of the Forum.
The DG stated that the Forum consist of the 36 state Governors in the Federation while the Secretariat is the administrative arm and a resource center for the Forum that renders services and policy formulation.
The NGF Secretariat, according to the DG, is a one-stop shop for any business you want to do with the states.
The Director General expressed optimism that now that the Commission has reached out, he believed that the partnership can bring a lot of positivity on deepening insurance penetration in the country.
After the NGF Secretariat and NAICOM agreed that a concept note should be submitted for their review and since a delivery room assessment has already been conducted, a joint Committee was set up immediately to deliver on the assignment at hand.
