Kari tasks insurers on strategies to meet challenges in economy

THE Commissioner for insurance, Mohammed Kari, has challenged operators in the nation’s insurance industry to map out strategies and identify the opportunities inherent in the change agenda of the government.

In his key note address at Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) 2015 professionals’ forum held in Abeokuta, Ogun State at the weekend, he challenged operators on their preparedness to tap opportunities in the different sectors of the economy particularly in the energy, telecommunications, and the new national carrier among others, or would the industry wait for these peak risks to be taken abroad at the expense of the industry.

He said “In consequence of the effect of uncontrollable changes in the macro-economic environments affecting our businesses, organizations and entities either passively or negatively, we are therefore implored to map-out adaptive strategies and identify the opportunities inherent in the “change” agenda.

“As far as innovation is concerned, we need to improve the content and quality of our services. In addition to our quest for innovation, changes in companies business model must be exploited. The earlier we realized that the music has changed and thus the need to adjust our dancing steps, the better for us all”.

On this year’s theme “The Nigerian business environment: Implications for the insurance industry”, Kari said “For this government to succeed in achieving the change agenda, all relevant sectors, organizations, householders and individual must be prepared to make impactful contributions to the desired outcome. The understanding of the assumptions that defines the dynamism of a business environment could not be unconnected with change in the world, the attendant change in consumer needs and behavioural theory of firms and industries.

“The world is currently going through unavoidable economic and political uncertainty than has ever been. The situations in the world and other domestic factors such as insecurity, corruption and unemployment have created a challenging situation in the Nigerian environments which the government is committed to addressing. Importantly, the Nigerian business environment had been predominantly characterized by change in the economic, socio-cultural, technological, legal and political environments”.

According to him, an aerial view of the audience here today gives me the delight that we have key players in the sector to aid the various discussions towards better articulation and internalization of the changing environment and how best the industry could leverage on it to achieve desired growth. The challenges of huge competence deficit, corruption, low level of innovation, overdependence on the oil sector leaves all asunder to phantom the best soluble buyouts and how to harness the opportunities inherent therein.

Kari said, “I have always harped on the need to embrace professionalism as our core value in the industry. Almost forty years in my career I still have not seen a reason to change that stance. Insurance practitioners must begin to reflect professionalism both in their words and deeds by upholding the tenets, ethics and principles of the Profession.

“As professionals, we are expected to invest in our personal education beyond what our employers would provide. Furthermore, we are expected to imbibe the spirit of professionalism in the discharge of our responsibility to our employers. I can almost hear someone ask what happens when our employers force us to do an act that is unprofessional. To such I will say, you should exercise a professional judgment as when the act is found out, both you and the employer are sanction able. We have seen unbridled, unsustainable and technically unsound rates being offered by supposedly insurance professionals more out of the need to meet a target than to properly underwrite.

“Professional brokers takes business from contraptions called “sub-agents” who by the way are not registered by anyone.

Premiums are loaded, discounted, retained or returned with impunity. Market indiscipline among practitioners, boards and management conflicts may degenerate to threatening the stability of some of our companies. The implication of such practices on the insurance industry in this new Nigerian business environment is the gradual diminution of our professional relevance as a veritable shield for the financial