By Lucy Nwachukwu/Bukola Adetoye
Kaduna (Kaduna State) – An insurance expert, Mr Mufutau Oyegunle, on Saturday lauded the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) for its partnership with the Kaduna State Government on enforcement of compulsory insurance scheme.
Oyegunle, the Managing Director, LAKEG Insurance Consult Ltd., gave the commendation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna.
NAN reports that the NAICOM Commissioner for Insurance (CFI), Alhaji Mohammed Kari, had on Friday led officials of the commission on a courtesy visit to Gov. Nasir El-Rufai, who was represented by his deputy, Bala Bantex.
The NAICOM’s team official visit was to fine-tune the plans on the partnership with the state government.
The visit kick started a seminar organised for Insurance Correspondents and Bureau Chiefs from Oct.6 to 9 with the theme: “Insuring the Uninsured’’.
Kaduna State is the fourth state the commission has synergised with to enforce compulsory insurance since it commenced its second phase of Market Development and Restructuring Initiative (MDRI) in April.
MDRI was launched in 2009 by NAICOM to deepen insurance market in the country and move the industry’s gross premium from the initial N16 billion in 2008 to N1 trillion by 2020.
Oyegunle said that the partnership, apart from allowing the commission to set up its branch in Kaduna, would create employment opportunities in the state.
He said that such synergy remained an effective means to curb the activities of quacks in the industry.
“To me, such partnership will improve the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state and transfer the burden of compensating the victims of unwarranted occurrence from the government to the insurance companies.
“This will allow the government to focus more on developmental projects, rather than looking for money from the little resources of the state to settle victims of inferno,’’ Oyegunle, also a former Director with Leadway Assurance Ltd., has said.
He advised the commission to embark on such visit to other states before the end of 2018 to enhance enforcement of compulsory insurance in the country.
Oyegunle said that the synergy would impact more on the Federal Government by the time all the states keyed into the compulsory insurance enforcement.
“ This means that insurance industry will collect more premiums from millions of Nigerians which will provide revenue for our long-term economic growth for the country’s recovery,’’ he said.
According to him, insurers must be willing to do more to make insurance a giant industry.
Oyegunle said that the distribution channels should also be innovative and ensure that new products should be developed to make them more attractive to the populace. (NAN)