The Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance coverage Agents (NCRIB) has warned that failure to adequately insure govt belongings may undermine Nigeria’s nationwide resilience and reveal the rustic to vital monetary losses within the tournament of failures and different unexpected cases.
The President of the NCRIB, Ekeoma Ezeibe, gave the caution all through a press convention on Tuesday in Abuja, calling for more potent enforcement of obligatory insurance coverage necessities for presidency belongings to give protection to essential public infrastructure and safeguard public investments.
“If we don’t insure the essential belongings of our country, then it signifies that in occasions of concern, there’s no resilience,” Ezeibe mentioned.
She stressed out that ok insurance coverage defense for public infrastructure used to be very important to decreasing the monetary penalties of sudden losses and combating govt sources from being diverted unnecessarily to rebuild broken belongings.
In step with her, govt investments in delivery methods, energy vegetation, seaports, railways and different strategic infrastructure make it crucial to be sure that such belongings are adequately insured in opposition to doable dangers.
She warned that injury to or destruction of essential infrastructure may disrupt financial actions, impose really extensive prices on govt and undermine nationwide building efforts.
Ezeibe famous that the Nigerian Insurance coverage Business Reform Act 2025 supplies for obligatory insurance coverage of presidency belongings and empowers the regulator to implement compliance.
She mentioned the insurance coverage business would proceed to interact govt establishments and regulatory government to handle gaps within the insurance coverage of public infrastructure and be sure that the regulation translated into sensible motion.
The NCRIB president maintained that govt should lead through instance in complying with obligatory insurance coverage necessities, including that ok defense of public belongings would reinforce the rustic’s skill to recuperate from main disruptions.
She spoke forward of the NCRIB Nationwide Insurance coverage Agents Convention and Exhibition, which can carry in combination insurance coverage practitioners, govt representatives, regulators, traders and different stakeholders to inspect the position of insurance coverage in infrastructure financing and nationwide building.
Ezeibe mentioned insurance coverage agents had a duty to carry in combination mission house owners, govt establishments, traders and insurers to be sure that suitable insurance coverage preparations have been integrated into infrastructure making plans and building.
In step with her, ok insurance coverage defense may provide higher reassurance to financiers through decreasing uncertainty over the monetary penalties of wear and tear to infrastructure belongings.
She defined that agents should assist purchasers establish suitable protection, assess doable dangers and perceive coverage phrases and stipulations earlier than buying insurance coverage.
She added that pro agents will have to additionally information purchasers all the way through the claims procedure to be sure that policyholders perceive their entitlements and obtain suitable help when insured losses happen.
Ezeibe stressed out that clear verbal exchange about coverage protection, exclusions and claims procedures used to be very important to construction public self belief in insurance coverage.
The NCRIB president expressed self belief within the skill of Nigeria’s insurance coverage business to hide main infrastructure tasks following the sphere’s recapitalisation workout.
She mentioned the recapitalisation, along the creation of risk-based capital necessities below the Nigerian Insurance coverage Business Reform Act 2025, had reinforced insurers’ monetary positions and progressed their capability to underwrite better dangers.
“After the recapitalisation workout, now we have the capability. Now we have the technical expertise,” she mentioned.
Ezeibe defined that the risk-based capital framework is going past minimal capital thresholds through linking insurers’ capital adequacy to the dangers they underwrite.
In step with her, the framework calls for insurance coverage corporations to be sure that the dangers they think stay inside their monetary capability, whilst hanging higher duty at the Nationwide Insurance coverage Fee (NAICOM) to observe compliance.
She mentioned the method will have to advertise accountable underwriting and reinforce self belief amongst policyholders, companies and traders searching for defense for his or her belongings.
Ezeibe additionally recommended NAICOM for its dealing with of the recapitalisation workout, expressing self belief within the regulator’s implementation of the brand new necessities.
She added that more potent home insurers can be higher situated to retain extra insurance coverage industry inside Nigeria, whilst reinsurance preparations would proceed to supply further defense for dangers exceeding person insurers’ capability.
In step with her, distributing dangers throughout global insurance coverage and reinsurance markets used to be a longtime business apply that helped unfold publicity and give protection to insurers in opposition to main losses.
She maintained that Nigeria’s insurance coverage marketplace possessed the pro experience to reinforce main infrastructure tasks, supplied suitable underwriting requirements and risk-management preparations have been maintained.
Past infrastructure defense, Ezeibe introduced plans to amplify insurance coverage get entry to to small companies, informal-sector operators and underserved communities via technology-driven microinsurance projects.
She mentioned the council used to be running against introducing a virtual utility that might permit extra Nigerians to get entry to insurance coverage merchandise via their cellphones.
The initiative is predicted to make insurance coverage extra available to marketplace investors, mechanics and different small-scale industry operators who would possibly in finding standard insurance coverage merchandise tricky to acquire.
In step with her, reasonably priced microinsurance may assist small companies recuperate from losses brought about through incidents equivalent to fireplace and robbery, enabling house owners to renew operations extra temporarily.
She mentioned the insurance coverage business had a duty to increase its products and services past high-income earners and be sure that micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) have been integrated within the insurance coverage protection web.
Ezeibe known expertise as a essential instrument for increasing insurance coverage distribution and making improvements to get entry to to reasonably priced merchandise.
She disclosed that the NCRIB had introduced an insurance coverage penetration initiative in Ogun State in June, including that the council meant to consolidate the programme earlier than extending it to different portions of the rustic.
She mentioned cooperation with state governments can be essential to the initiative’s luck and that the programme would proceed past her presidency as a part of the council’s institutional duties.
The NCRIB president steered individuals of the general public to ensure the registration and licensing standing of insurance coverage agents earlier than enticing their products and services.
She defined that the NCRIB serves as an preliminary skilled gatekeeper, whilst NAICOM plays regulatory licensing and enforcement purposes.
In step with her, the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance coverage Agents Act 2003 establishes the prison framework for the council’s registration duties, whilst the Nigerian Insurance coverage Business Reform Act 2025 reinforces regulatory oversight.
She warned that training as an insurance coverage dealer with out the desired authorisation constitutes an offence below the appropriate prison framework.
Ezeibe urged shoppers to seek the advice of the council’s reputable website online, www.ncrib.web, to ensure registered insurance coverage agents and cross-check their credentials in opposition to NAICOM’s information.
She mentioned more potent verification mechanisms and regulatory enforcement have been essential to give protection to shoppers from unqualified operators and maintain self belief within the insurance coverage marketplace.
Ezeibe additionally highlighted consumer-protection provisions below the Nigerian Insurance coverage Business Reform Act 2025, together with the Insurance coverage Policyholders Coverage Fund and the Twist of fate Sufferers Coverage Fund.
She defined that the Insurance coverage Policyholders Coverage Fund used to be established to assist give protection to eligible policyholders whose claims stay unpaid below specified cases involving insurance coverage corporations.
The Twist of fate Sufferers Coverage Fund, she added, supplies a framework for help in qualifying circumstances involving third-party sufferers of uninsured or unidentified automobiles, topic to appropriate statutory prerequisites.
The NCRIB president additional famous that the brand new prison framework calls for insurance coverage agents to deal with skilled indemnity duvet of a minimum of ₦100 million or 50 in line with cent in their earlier 12 months’s revenue, whichever is upper.
She mentioned the requirement used to be meant to supply an street for eligible purchasers to hunt reimbursement the place skilled negligence or beside the point recommendation ended in losses.
Ezeibe maintained that those provisions mirrored broader efforts to reinforce user defense, enhance skilled requirements and repair public self belief within the insurance coverage marketplace.
She reiterated that implementing obligatory insurance coverage necessities for presidency belongings, along business recapitalisation and efficient regulatory oversight, would assist give protection to public investments, reinforce nationwide resilience and reinforce Nigeria’s infrastructure building.
She known as for sustained collaboration amongst govt establishments, regulators, insurers and agents to make insurance coverage an integral a part of infrastructure making plans and nationwide financial building.
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