Over N500 million will elude the Nigerian economy between now and October as two prominent conferences in the insurance sector have been unceremoniously shifted to other countries because of security concerns in the country.

Originally planned to be hosted in Nigeria, the Bancassurance Conference being put together by the West African Insurance Companies Association (WAICA) will now hold in Ghana while the Regional Claims Conference of the International Federation of Adjusting Association (IFAA) has been moved to London.

Vanguard reliable gathered that organisers of these conferences were quick to jettison the idea of Nigeria being the host of these events because of the rising spate of insecurity, bombings and violence around the country.
Nigeria took over the 2010/2011 leadership of IFAA for a period of one year and it is the country’s turn to host the association’s Regional Conference, unfortunately, such will not be the case due to the country’s security concerns.

Mr. Darlington Mgbojikwe, president of IFAA told Vanguard that it was the turn of Institute of Loss Adjusters of Nigeria (ILAN) to organise and host the conference during his tenor as president for 20011/2012 but it was cancelled by IFAA due  mainly to security concerns in our country. “Thus the third regional claims conference that the ILAN would have organised is now scheduled to be held in London on October 12, 2011,” he regretted.

Mgbojikwe stated that the benefits that would have been derived had Nigeria hosted the conference are being lost. “As a member of a global professional association, if foreigners come into the country for such events, the locals will be learning a lot of things.”

In his words “The conference we lost would have brought in loss adjusters from all over the world to  Nigeria and if they come to Nigeria it is not only loss adjusters that would benefit, insurers  and the nation as a whole will benefit. The globalisation that is preached over the years is not coming only in terms of money it is coming also in terms of technology transfer. It is a major loss that we are unable to host this conference.”

Mr. Debo Ajayi, Managing Director & Actuary Serving Middle East, Africa & South Asia, Milliman Actuaries & Consultants, who are the sponsors of WAICA Conference, told Vanguard that the organisers were not able to convince other stakeholders to host the event in Nigeria because of growing fear of insecurity.

In his words “The issue of Nigeria came up as a host but other stakeholders insisted that we will be responsible for their security, because we could not guarantee that we had to move it to Ghana.”