NAICOM tasks insurers on actuarial training in industry

The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has identified shortage of actuarial professionals in the insurance industry as an issue the industry should look seriously to fill the gap through training and retraining.

The Commissioner for Insurance, Mohammed Kari, represented by Director, Research and IT, Adamu Balanti, speaking at Consolidated Hallmark Insurance fifth yearly essay and award for tertiary institutions in Lagos, congratulated the company for instituting the essay and award and appeal to other insurance companies o emulate and incept similar initiatives.

He said the industry is in need of trained actuaries in the industry because of the significant role they play in risk management. He congratulated the participants and recipients of the award and he advice that they should use the award as the first step in becoming insurance professionals and professional actuaries,

Balanti, said to develop and promote insurance education in Nigeria, NAICOM has been running a program in the last few years to assist tertiary institutions. For the first phase, NAICOM selected two institutions from each of the six geo-political zones. The assistance is by way of providing ICT\research entries, providing insurance and insurance related books, and provision of scholarships for insurance department lecturers to study insurance or insurance related programs at the masters or PHD levels.

According to him, the commission is developing a policy road map for the development of professional actuaries for Nigeria. Currently written input and recommendations are being received from various stakeholders including practitioners, academia, actuarial firms, international actuarial associations etc, some of the ideas being considered include; bursary support for actuarial science students; assistance to institutions having actuarial science department . collaboration with insurance institutions in the area of sponsoring actuarial professional development; giving opportunity for internship, creation of actuarial department\unit employment of actuaries, etc. partnership with actuarial firms for capacity building across the county; partnership with other actuary bodies and other initiatives, partnership with CIIN and other actuarial examination bodies etc

Balanti said these and other initiatives are being considered and a final policy read map for the development of actuarial profession will be released soon. Besides, NAICOM has also recently created its actuarial unit for this purpose.

In his remarks, the Director-General, Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) Kola Ahmed, congratulated the company for organizing the competition for the past five years that has afforded students in higher institutions interested in insurance to participate in the competition.

According to him, the competition will promote insurance education and afford students the opportunity to embrace insurance course of study and career choice. He said that the Institute has donated insurance books to 17 tertiary institutions studying insurance; presents IT equipment to some secondary schools and offer rebate to students who are writing the Institute’s professional examination.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive of the company, Eddie Efekoha, in his remarks said that the event is the humble contribution of the company to the enlightenment of the public on the importance of insurance and to encourage students in higher institutions to take insurance as a career.. He congratulated the winners of the essay competition and promised that the company will continue to sponsor the competition to deepen penetration in the country
Miss Florence Ogunleye of the Polytechnic, Ibadan, won the first price; Julius Olabiyi, of University of Uyo, won the second the 2nd prize, while miss Esekwe Ifeayichukwu, of University of Uyo, won the third prize.