The Nation Newspaper

Tag: CIIN

  • CIIN seeks improved customer service

    The Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) has concluded arrangement to train middle level managers in insurance companies in Port Harcourt next week.

    The Director of Communication of the Institute, Mr Joseph Obah, stated in a statement that training was part of its Education Seminar.

    According to him, to meet the expectations in micro insurance and Takaful, the operators would have to address the imperatives for improved service delivery and ensuring that the Policy holder is protected at all times.

    Obah noted that while insurance companies are exploring ways to employ Takaful and micro-insurance to increase insurance penetration, insurance practitioners should rightly shift their focus to how to raise the level of satisfaction of consumers of insurance services across the country.

    Obah said the seminar with the theme, “Making insurance count”, provides the industry a platform for training and retraining managers and other middle level personnel in the industry. “

    ‘’ It was designed to bring into focusthe imperatives for growing insurance bigger in public perceptionwhile examining ways and means by which branch office operations could be strengthened to guarantee prompt resolution of customer related issues”, he explained

    Also, the President of the Institute, Mr Wole Adetimehin, said: “The resolution of customer-related issues should be a win-win situation ,with the customer and service provider occupying a position mutual respect.’’

    Resource persons at the seminar are the Managing Director of Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc, Mr Wole Onaolopo and Mr Wehinmi Jemide.

  • RISAN holds conference on disaster management

    Risk Surveyors Association of Nigeria (RISAN) will hold its national conference next month, in Lagos.

    Entitled: Human element in disaster management and loss prevention, the conference, the President of the association, Jacob Adeosun, said in a statement, will address the challenges of disaster management and proffer solutions to mitigate the occurrence of losses on roads as well as in commerce and industry resulting from industrial fires and allied perils.

    Adeosun said the conference will focus on the impact of human element in disaster management at this year’s parley given the central position which human beings play in managing the challenges of risks.

    Expected at the event are Mr Fola Daniel, Commissioner for Insurance (NAICOM); Dr Remi Olowude, Chairman, Nigeria Insurers Association (NIA), Dr Wole Adetimehin, President, Chatered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) and Mrs Laide Osijo, President, Nigerian Corporation of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), among others.

    The conference will climax with the investiture of Adeosun as the President of the association.

  • Agency challenges insurers on customers’research

    Insurers do not spend enough time and money on research on customers’ needs and services, a report has said.

    The report by GIZ, a German agency for sustainable development working in partnership with Riskguard-Africa Nigeria Limited, observed that the microfinance account underwriting is not attractive to underwriters not because of high cost or of the small size of the premium, but because insurers are not selling solutions.

    Director-General, Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), Adegboyega Adepegba, said the institute has risen to the challenge of low level of research in the industry by establishing a college of insurance that will help enhance the level of research on how to foster growth in the industry.

    He said: “You cannot do research in insurance in isolation, research would have to look at the micro and macro economy. You have to look at insurance itself, look at the economy within which it is operates. To have any meaningful research, it has to be all embracing. And maybe it has to start from conducting research on products and the need of the industry.

    “You really need to know what the skill gaps are before you can think of putting in place proper training programme. For instance, in the oil and gas, there is a gap; that is the skill required to do that job effectively, which may not be adequate for now and in the next few months the institute is going to do something to bridge that gap, there are so many other areas.”

  • ‘Insurers need to reinvent themselves’

    ‘Insurers need to reinvent themselves’

    Mr. Adegboyega Adepegba, Director, General, Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), in this interview with Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf, reflects on the theory and practice of insurance in Nigeria

    What is your assessment of the insurance industry?

    My assessment is that there are still a lot more to be done by the industry itself, there are still a lot more to be done by the institute where I happen to be the Director General. I will say the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), which is the body that has been given the statutory powers to train and retrain insurance professional and persons in Nigeria, is doing its best to ensure that those who will hold themselves high as professionals are well trained before they are certified. That is, for you to become an insurance professional, you must have gone through some prescribed examinations, which the institute conducts. And the examination is in three parts, we have the certificate, the diploma and advanced diploma stage. If any one hopes to hold himself high as a professional, he must go through these examinations. The institute provides different services to enable us prepare the students for examination. We also have a college that has been put in place to ensure that we train those who would take the examinations and those that will come in for refresher courses. The institute has also some examination programmes that it conducts on regular basis, some on annual bases and regular intervals.

    For example, the conferences, seminars, in house programmes and Mandatory Continuing Professional Development (MCPD) training programme. In all that I have said concerning the efforts of the institute, I think the insurance education in the country is not doing badly. I can say members of the industry are getting the best on training. We have also encouraged that education is not something you get from a particular source like the CIIN; we also encourage students and our members to develop and re-develop themselves. The MDCP programme for example ensures that students write, carry out research, and attend programmes that can broaden their knowledge about the practice of insurance. I can say the insurance in Nigeria is gathering momentum.

    What are the challenges confronting the institute?

    There are a lot of challenges; of course finance is the major issue, whether for the institute or the corporate bodies that would send their staff for programmes. Over the years, I want to suspect, that the budget for training has being falling, I do not have the figures, but I suspect, that there might be some scaling down of budget for training, this is a major challenge. This is because no matter how good and elaborate a training programme is, if we do not have more of our members attending there is a challenge. It is no longer fashionable for a practitioner to just have one certificate in the present dispensation. Professions have intertwined that somebody must have a bit of what is obtainable in other professions. The knowledge that was impacted 10 years ago may not be sufficient to drive the business of today. Therefore, there is the challenge for our people to change in learning new things and asking more questions. There is also the challenge on research, raising qualified people who can impact knowledge on young practitioners.

    Our professionals are very busy people, but the time has come for them to give back something to those that are coming up. The challenge we have here is that the professionals have their primary duties and must meet certain targets in their officers. We have been trying to encourage the professionals, but it has not been easy. We try to encourage people to have mentors and build relationships, but we still have some challenges. We hope that so many good hands we have in industry, which may not be getting younger, there is need for us to begin to ask them to impact on others.

    How has the institute fared in encouraging intake of fresh hands to replace aging practitioners?

    Most professionals have continued to age and we have continued to educate young people to take our examination to boost their performance. We have improved on our awareness drive and there are more people coming in to register for our examination, but there is still the need to fast track it. I believe we must be able to match the number of people coming in two times over and above those going out. That we have not been able to achieve. There is a danger if we have for an example 30 people retiring every year and we cannot find about 40 or 50 people replacing them by way of qualification. Exit can be as a result of death, retirement, loss of jobs and other factors, whereas, the only entrance into the profession is the CIIN which monitors those who come into the industry. When we did the last count, we observed that we have average of 60 people joining the profession every year. I do not want to go into the number of people that leave the industry for I do not have the figure, but we know that people are leaving due to age and other reasons. I believe there has been some improvement in the number of people coming in; for we are working seriously to get more people into the profession through National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) orientations campaigns, visit to tertiary institutions, Catch Them Young Programmes, our Operation 5000 Graduate Scheme and others.

    What is the state of the insurance college?

    The college of insurance and financial management is evolving; its blue print is ready. I do tell people that the college is not the building – the number of classes we have, but the blue print which we have been able to develop and where the blue print is taking us to is that within the next few months, we would be admitting students. Whether we admit them in the permanent site or somewhere else, would not be the most important thing now, but the important thing is that we have a blue print and we are bringing in people that would run the college. We would be bringing experts from the industry that would form the faculties of the college. Presently, the administration block of the college is completed, the restaurant 90 per cent completed, we have seven chalets that have also been completed. With the complement of buildings we have in there, we can start. We have made tremendous progress on the college. We have completed the administration block that houses the class rooms and can sit about 2000 students. We have admin offices for the college rector and other staff. We have a restaurant and seven chalets for people who may want to stay overnight. The next stage is for us to build the halls for presidents and that I think before the end of the year, we shall lay the foundation for that.

    As a non professional, how have you been able to cope with the administration of the institute?

    While I would not unduly justify that a non professional can run this place, I want to say that what is required to run this place successfully is a good knowledge of management.

    Other things required to run the institute are deep managerial skill, ability to wed people together, ability to win the support of the industry, ability to meet the needs of members, cutting down one’s excesses. The work here is like that of a judge. In the years I have been here, I have lost many friends and cut down many because if one is running an institution like ours, he must be above board.

  • CIIN, NCRIB seek govt’s support for industry

    CIIN, NCRIB seek govt’s support for industry

    The President, Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), Dr Wole Adetimehin and his counterpart in the National Council of Registered Insurers Brokers (NCRIB), Mrs. Laide Osijo, have called on state governments to support the industry by procuring policies to cover their risks.

    Adetimehin, made the call during a visit to the Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun in Abeokuta, on the one hand, and Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, in Akure, recently.

    Adetimehin said support from governments, would go a long way in promoting service delivery and enhance international best practices.

    He said there are compelling reasons why the citizenry and governments should take insurance more seriously, adding that Nigerians are under daily threat from risks emanating from natural disasters such as floods, rainstorms and security risks which are taking their toll on the citizenry.

    He noted that the low insurance contribution to the economy stemmed from lack of necessary infrastructure, adding that lack of basic needs prevent people from making insurance part of their priorities.

    He said: “With unemployment at an estimated 23.9 per cent in 2012, the Insurance business in Nigeria is hardly able to improve on its contribution to the nation’s GDP, above one per cent, unlike in South Africa where it is 15 per cent. The reason for this is because citizens are apparently laden with costs which are channeled at the procurement of otherwise basic and fundamental needs such as electricity, water and security, these, he said prevent them from making insurance part of their priorities.

    “I am delighted that some state governments are making positive efforts in the improvement of citizens’ welfare and this includes Ogun State. We wish to also seize this opportunity in requesting Ogun State and other state governments to provide a level playing ground for the insurance companies within the states in the procurement of state insurances.

  • CIIN spends N200 million on college

    The Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), may have spent over N200 million on the college of Insurance and Financial Management (CIFM) project. The Director General, Mr Adesoji Adepegba, disclosed this while reviewing the achievement of the institute in the last 10 years.

    Adepegba told jouralists in Lagos, last week that the institute was able to mobilise the amount which it has spent on the first phase of the project, saying academic work would start very soon.

    He said the programme will include a two-year certificate in insurance after which graduates would go for a one year industrial attachment and return for another two years Advanced Certificate in Insurance.

    He said the certificates would be equivalent to the Ordinary National Diploma (OND) and the Higher National Diploma (HND), which are handled by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).

    The HND certificate is equivalent to a degree, he said, adding that at this stage, the HND insurance graduate of the college will have one or two papers to write to become an insurance professional. He said the effect in the long run will be such that when five people gather, at least one of them would be an insurance professional.

    Adepegba said the objectives of the college include: to provide qualitative education and training for persons engaged in the practice of insurance and allied services throughout Nigeria; to provide consultancy services in the fields of insurance and financial services for the insurance industry in particular and the financial sector of the economy in general and to undertake research in all aspects of insurance and allied subjects relevant to the economic development of the nation. Other objectives of the college according to the Director- General include: to collect relevant data on the insurance industry, maintain a database and provide information on all aspects of insurance for public use; to constitute a research platform for determining the industry’s manpower needs from time to time and to benchmark international standards in insurance and financial management education with a view to making the College a Centre of Educational Excellence globally.