Mr. Koya Olateru-Olagbegi has appealed to the Nigerian Council of registered Insurance Brokers, NCRIB, to avail foreign investors more opportunity to come into the Nigerian broking market.

According to Olateru-Olagbegi, there are a lot of Nigerians and foreigners abroad who want to come into the country to do business but some bureaucratic bottlenecks do not allow them.

Olateru-Olagbegi, who said that he has been practicing as an insurance broker in Atlanta, Georgia for over 20 years even as he is the first Nigerian that started insurance brokerage there, stated that allowing genuine investors who have practiced abroad for a long time to come and do business in the country will help in building the economy of the country.

While revealing his ordeal in the process of trying to establish a broking firm in the country, Olateru-Olagbegi said “I have a plan to start an insurance broking firm in the last ten years, but the Nigerian insurance brokerage system has not been favourable to Americans.   For one reason or the other they don’t want us to come in. And the reason according to them is that they don’t know how to evaluate American education compared to London and India which they are familiar with.”

Olateru-Olagbegi alleged that the NCRIB has been sitting on his folder for the past ten years and even when the matter was taken to the National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, they were referred back to NCRIB.

Olateru-Olagbegi who said that he is trying to come into the Nigerian insurance sector to share knowledge with Nigerians said “I have been to NCRIB so many times and they have held my file for a long time. I have been to their seminars, workshops and even attended everything they have done. But for one reason or the other, they said that it is the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria, CIIN that will certify if I am qualified.”

He said that he has provided all necessary information to check if he is really qualified but for one reason or the other the NCRIB choose to do things the way they are doing. Having waited so long, Olateru-Olagbegi said that his next line of action is to buy into an existing broking firm.

According to Olateru-Olagbegi, there is no level playing field for Nigerian Americans to come in and do business in the country, adding “There has been a lot of Indians who have been approved since I sent in my application. I don’t think it is fair.