SCIB, Aon Benfield seek more value services for Nigeria market
SCIB Nigeria & Co. Ltd and their foreign partner, Aon Benfield, a global reinsurance broker with subsidiary in South Africa have reaffirmed their commitment to create more value for their clients in the Nigerian market.
Relationship with both companies spanning eight years now, was further strengthened recently when both companies hosted their clients and business associates in Nigeria in a cocktail, which offered opportunity for networking and knowledge sharing.
Shola Tinubu, managing director/CEO, SCIB in his welcome remarks said SCIB/Aon Benfield have been in business partnership for almost 8 years now and within these period have had the opportunity to provide value added service to some of their esteemed clients. “Our achievements in these 8 years have been tremendous providing solutions through existing and new products.”
Tinubu said looking forward, “we will continue to leverage on our respective strengths and global capabilities to bring solutions to the Nigerian market and the economy as a whole.”
“We will continue to support the industry from a reinsurance perspective, not just in terms of pricing but products and recoveries solutions.”
The Aon Benfield team was led its chairman, Simon Chikumbu and accompanied by other top executives of the company.
Victor Mushaya, executive head, Aon Benfield Africa in Johannesburg South Africa, said the company seeks to provide value to insurance companies when the purchase reinsurance covers.
“The way we approach reinsurance purchase is by making sure that when the client is taking decision to buy reinsurance, they are fully informed about all the options they have, not only that, but also ensure they have appreciation of their financial position.”
He said with that knowledge, the purchase then becomes an added value to the capital employed, rather than just a cost to their business. “It becomes a kind of borrowing capital from reinsurance to aid their business.”
Mushaya who could not hide his feelings said the major challenge with the Nigerian market today is product rates.
“The issue of rate in Nigeria is a concern to us, because we know that even the companies’ results are also affected because the underwriting is not properly done. Insurance is not about collecting premium, but making sure that the different aspects of the transaction before accepting the business have been done properly.”
According to him, Premium is one aspect, but risk management is a key element of the transaction.
“Nigerian market has regularly suffered one or two major losses every year. The reinsurance market is also feeling the pain, and i think there is that awareness both for reinsurers and the local market that something has to be done to correct the situation.”
“Even at the lower level, I think the market should start to look at the basics of risk management and start applying them in future transactions. This is what we expect the market to take up and address because it is not a sustainable situation.”
On the relationship with Nigerian companies, Mushaya pointed out that “Nigerians are warmth people and eager to understand how we operate.
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