NCRIB boss restates importance of Insurance Brokers

L-R: The Deputy Executive Secretary, Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers, Mr Tope Adaramola; NCRIB Board Member, Alhaja Rashidat Shittu; Executive Secretary, Mr Fatai Adegbenro; President, Dr. (Mrs.) Bola Onigbogi; Vice President, Mr Tunde Oguntade; and Board Member, Mr Biodun Durodola at the NCRIB Press Conference held at Insurance Brokers House in Lagos

The President, Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), Dr. (Mrs) Bola Onigbogi has restated the importance of Insurance Brokers in the nation’s economic value chain, saying the relevance of Brokers to insurance industry cannot be undermined.

Briefing the press today in Lagos, Onigbogi reiterated the thrust of her office which she said revolves around creating the right image for the Brokers just as she expressed dissatisfaction on the level of Nigerian awareness on who an Insurance Broker is.

According to her, “Before my emergence as the President of the Council, I realized that many Nigerians still misconstrued the role and personality of the Insurance Broker. Some erroneously refer to him as a Stock Broker.

“As a matter of fact, Many Nigerians are conversant with who a Stock Broker is than an Insurance Broker. This mis-identity has continued to hamper the business of our members who in actual sense produce the largest chunk of insurance business in the country.”

She said In order to correct this misnomer, her administration has coined it’s Thrust of Office around Image Building and Strategic Engagement.

“Our intention is to create the deserving aural around the profession and make it a household name. In the furtherance of this mandate, we have continued to engage other professional bodies such as Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, (LCCI), Chartered Institute of Taxation (CITN), FIRS. In a similar vein, we have been able to append the signatures of net worth Nigerians to the brand of the Broker and we are still doing more.

“Today, we have as our Brand Ambassadors the likes of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi; former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Eze Leslie Eke, Eze Gbakagbaka of Evo Kingdom, River State. This was deliberate strategy to get to every stratum of Nigerian population.

“Our mandate is to project the image of the industry and particularly insurance broking. We have continued to work through the Council’s Area Committees to reach out to members of the public. Within the last one year, this administration has visited the six geopolitical zones with the aim of propagating the positive image of the Broking fraternity to the grassroots via the Area Committee structure, and this has yielded positive results.