By JEFF ADE

The Commissioner for Insurance and Chief Executive of the National Insurance Commission, Mr. Olusegun Ayo Omosehin, recently visited the Director-General of the Nigeria Governors Forum, Dr. Abdulateef Shittu, at the NGF Secretariat in Abuja.

The Director-General informed the Management of NAICOM 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. He stated that the Forum consists 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 is a one-stop shop for any business you want to do with the states, he said.

The CFI briefed the Secretariat on the core mandate of the National Insurance Commission which is supervising, regulating and developing the Insurance sector in Nigeria. By so doing, he remarked, it 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 our Law. He noted that at the Federal level this is being driven by Federal agencies but at the states level the Commission needs some high level of cooperation and collaboration.

He further stated that the key reason the Commission was at the NGF secretariat was 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. He said having been appointed recently, few months back, he and his team were working out how they can address some of the issues differently from the way they were 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. He 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 to prevent revenue loss for the states in terms of IGR. There is also need for awareness creation across the states on the value of insurance, the CFI added.

The Director-General expressed optimism that the partnership can bring a lot of positive outcomes and deepen insurance penetration in the country now that the Commission has reached out.

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, the ball shall be kicked to start rolling immediately, and a joint Committee was set to deliver on the assignment at hand.

NAICOM CEO, Olusegun Ayo Omosehin (Left), and DG of NGF, Dr. Abdulateef Shittu