Giving insurance a place in Buhari’s government

As May 29 handover date to Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government draws closer with the All Peoples Congress (APC) tinkering with calculations and permutations of “who becomes what” in the incoming cabinet, analysts are concerned about the office of the minister of finance.

The interest in the office in this sense is not about who controls the money like what the politicians and those interested in power would be concerned about, but about who understands a balanced financial system; a system that will realise the role of insurance as risk management tool and mobiliser of long terms funds to support other sectors of the economy.

Analysts are of the opinion that the nation’s financial system has been lopsided with all attention focused on the banking industry for a long time, thus dwarfing the insurance sector which ordinarily should have been driving the financial system as found in developed economies.

Unfortunately, this trend was about to change at the last lap of the outgoing administration of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan when government through Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, was beginning to align with insurance as a major part of the economy.

Okonjo-Iweala, at the first insurance summit she hosted in Abuja, October 2014, said that government wants to focus on insurance as the next wind area for economic growth, noting that the banking sector has run it’s full circle but insurance sector was largely untapped.

“We need to join hands with the federal government’s quest to ensure Financial Inclusion in all spheres of our community in a manner that would help deepen insurance, which arguably is the weakest in the chain of financial services,” she said.

She said that henceforth the government will throw its support behind the industry in implementation of its medium-term plan that would not only propel growth but also create jobs for the economy.

Fola Daniel, commissioner for insurance, said that the government has realised the potential of the industry and has expressed its commitment to support the industry in the enforcement of public interest on compulsory insurances, a key plank of MDRI; deliver jobs and skill development through expansion of the agency system as well as build customer trust, increase public awareness and access to insurance products.

An insurance CEO said the insurance industry was about to have a breakthrough with the current government if they had more time to stay in office. He said it was the first time in the history of the industry a government rose to champion development of the sector with set targets, and immediately inaugurated implementation committee.

According to the CEO, “If we have a minister of finance that would see insurance the way Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala sees it, or even better, we will make a lot of progress.”

The insurance boss further argued that whoever would be appointed minister of fiancé should be somebody who does not see religion or culture as barrier to risk management, because that will determine how insurance will be incorporated in policy focus of the coming Buhari government.

Modestus  Anaesoronye