Cross River Gov’t seeks insurance brokers partnership to fast track development
The Cross River State Government has assured the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) of patronage of its Members in insurance of its numerous assets and investments to sustain the state’s economic vibrancy.
Benedict Ayade, executive governor of the State, made the promise while declaring open, the 2017 Chief Executive Officers Retreat of the Council held in Calabar over the weekend.
According to Ayade “as a State that is propelled by the spirit of enterprise, let me assure of our partnership with the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers to ensure the attainment of your set objective”.
The Governor who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Tina Agbor , underscored the understanding of the State Government about the critical importance of insurance to all the state’s developmental goals.
“We fully understand the critical importance of insurance to all of our developmental goals and while creating the enabling environment for businesses and other forms of investment to thrive, we shall key in appropriately by taking up insurance policies to cover our investments across the state.
“As decision makers and manager of critical sector of our national economy, I charge the Council to come up with strategies that will enhance policy consistency and sustainability in the insurance sub sector as this is key to multi-sectoral development
Rising from the three day retreat, the Governor urged the Council to come up with workable and more proactive measures that would tackle the many problems militating against insurance in the Country.
Also speaking at the retreat, the Commissioner for Insurance, Mohammed Kari enjoined the Council to use the opportunity of the retreat to brainstorm on the workable modalities to tackle the issue of poor acceptance of insurance products among the Nigerian populace.
According to him, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and NCRIB are partners in ensuring insurance penetration, decrying the general attitude of Nigerians to insurance products, especially the six compulsory insurance products.
The Commissioner, who was represented by the Deputy Commissioner for Insurance, Technical, Sunday Thomas urged Insurance Brokers to improve on service delivery to reduce existing gap by creating additional intermediaries to complement the existing ones, whose interest have been put into consideration in the guidelines to be released.
According to him, the Commission would partner with Cross River State Government and other State Government of the federation to ensure enforcement of compulsory insurances, stressing that NAICOM would appreciate contributions on how to move the industry forward.
Addressing the Chief Executive and top notch of the Insurance Broking profession in Nigeria, the President of the Council, Kayode Okunoren noted that the choice of the Retreat theme, which is Possibilities! Possibilities! Possibilities! was apt and deliberate in view of the challenges facing the nation and its economy.
Although, Okunoren assured that the indices available revealed that the nation’s economy was gradually coming out of recession stressing that the current Nigeria’s state of economy which had been described as the most severe downturn in the last 25 years has past the worst.
“The significant improvement in foreign exchange liquidity is an indication of serious commitment to national economic growth. Our take therefore is that the Country must see the recent experience as a learning curve in our national economic management” he said.
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