Former President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, CON, CGH, has been named Global Ambassador for Insurance in Nigeria and the Face of Insurance in the country, in recognition of his commitment to championing the growth, visibility and transformation of Nigeria’s insurance industry.

The announcement was made at the Nigeria’s Insurance Directors Conference, organised by the Chartered Institute of Insurance of Nigeria (CIIN) in collaboration with the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), in Lagos.

Speaking at the conference, where he delivered the keynote address titled “Building the Nigerian Insurance Industry: Institutional Transformation, Public Accountability and National Economic Development,” Dr. Adesina offered to lend his voice, experience, international networks and leadership influence to champion the development of insurance in Nigeria.

He challenged industry captains, board chairpersons, directors, chief executives and regulators to move beyond conventional approaches to insurance business and embrace a fundamental transformation that places public trust, accountability, professional excellence and national development at the centre of the industry’s operations.

“Do not just build insurance companies. Insure the nation. Protect its wealth. Finance its growth,” he declared.

Dr. Adesina observed that Nigeria’s insurance penetration remains approximately 0.5 per cent of GDP, representing a significant gap in the country’s capacity to protect households, businesses and productive investments.

He noted that as Nigeria pursues President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s $1 trillion economy ambition, the insurance industry must become a stronger pillar of economic transformation by protecting productive assets, managing risks, supporting investment and mobilising long-term capital.

According to him, no economy can achieve sustainable growth without an insurance industry capable of protecting its productive assets, managing its risks and supporting investment.

CHALLENGES INDUSTRY LEADERS TO REBUILD PUBLIC TRUST

A central message of Dr. Adesina’s address was the urgent need to rebuild public confidence in the Nigerian insurance industry.

He emphasised that the true value of insurance is not demonstrated when premiums are collected, but when policyholders suffer losses and receive the protection promised to them.

He called on insurance companies to prioritise prompt and transparent claims settlement, insisting that valid claims must be honoured in accordance with contractual and regulatory requirements.

“When a policyholder pays an insurance premium, that policyholder deserves a premium service in return,” he said.

He further challenged insurance boards to take greater responsibility for claims performance, customer complaints, corporate governance and management accountability.

Dr. Adesina proposed that NAICOM institutionalise an annual public insurance industry accountability and performance report covering claims received and settled, outstanding claims, average settlement timelines, customer complaints, regulatory compliance, financial soundness and corporate governance.

He argued that the industry cannot demand public trust while resisting public scrutiny.

CALLS FOR STRONGER INSTITUTIONS AND REGULATORY ACCOUNTABILITY

Addressing the industry’s ongoing recapitalisation exercise under the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act 2025, Dr. Adesina cautioned that raising capital alone would not guarantee institutional transformation.

“Recapitalisation is not the same as institutional transformation,” he stated.

He explained that stronger capital must be accompanied by sound corporate governance, disciplined underwriting, adequate technical reserves, effective risk management and stronger reinsurance arrangements.

He urged board chairpersons and directors to exercise effective oversight, challenge management assumptions, scrutinise related-party transactions and ensure that internal audit, actuarial, compliance and risk-management functions operate independently.

He also challenged NAICOM to strengthen risk-based supervision, ensure effective implementation of the industry’s reform framework and hold insurance institutions accountable for measurable results.

INSURANCE MUST BECOME A DRIVER OF NIGERIA’S ECONOMIC GROWTH

Dr. Adesina highlighted the strategic role of insurance in financing and sustaining Nigeria’s economic transformation.

Drawing from his experience as President of the African Development Bank Group, he explained that development finance and risk management must work together, as investors are unlikely to commit substantial resources to productive activities where risks are inadequately understood or managed.

He called for greater insurance coverage across agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing, energy, transportation, healthcare and housing.

He also urged insurance companies to responsibly deploy a portion of their investible funds into commercially viable infrastructure and productive-sector investments, subject to their policyholder obligations, liquidity requirements and applicable regulations.

He stressed that insurance funds must be managed prudently and that national development priorities must never override the financial interests of policyholders.

He further called for stronger domestic reinsurance capacity to enable Nigerian institutions to retain and prudently manage a greater proportion of insurable risks within the country.

CHALLENGES INDUSTRY TO DELIVER NAICOM’S 2031 TARGETS

The former AfDB President welcomed NAICOM’s 2031 ambitions of increasing insurance penetration to 10 per cent of GDP, extending active insurance coverage to 25 million Nigerians and developing 6,000 certified insurance professionals.

However, he warned that these ambitions would require a fundamental departure from business-as-usual approaches.

He proposed a framework of measurable accountability involving three key institutions:

* NAICOM: To provide strategic direction, regulatory oversight and annual performance assessments.

* The Chartered Institute of Insurance of Nigeria: To strengthen professional development, certification, competence and ethical leadership.

* Insurance companies and their boards: To establish measurable corporate targets for expanding coverage, improving claims settlement, strengthening governance and investing in technology.

He called for an annual industry performance scorecard supported by quarterly monitoring and periodic independent assessment.

“The measure of success must be outcomes, not announcements,” he emphasised.

ADESINA OFFERS TO CHAMPION INSURANCE IN NIGERIA

In accepting the responsibility associated with his new role as Global Ambassador for Insurance in Nigeria and Face of Insurance in the country, Dr. Adesina underscored the importance of building a stronger, more trusted and globally competitive insurance industry.

His intervention reflects his longstanding conviction that economic development is not simply about creating wealth, but also about protecting wealth, managing risks and ensuring that productive investments can survive and grow.

He drew on his doctoral research at Purdue University on agricultural risks, his experience managing agricultural risks as Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and his work championing climate resilience and development financing during his tenure at the African Development Bank.

He challenged insurance professionals to recognise that the industry’s future would be determined not simply by the capital raised or premiums collected, but by the value delivered to policyholders and the confidence inspired among the public.

Concluding his address, Dr. Adesina called on the regulators, professional bodies, industry leaders and insurance practitioners to collectively take responsibility for building institutions worthy of public confidence.

“Do not just build insurance companies. Insure the nation. Protect its wealth. Finance its growth.”

He declared that the future of Nigerian insurance was not something to wait for, but something the industry must deliberately build.

“And the time to begin is now.”