By ROSEMARY ONUOHA

Worried by the spates of capital flight in the insurance industry, the Chairman of Niger Insurance Plc, Mr. Bala Zakariya’u has urged sector operators to reposition themselves in order to underwrite big risks locally.

Zakariya’u kicked against the trend where many of such big ticket risks are ceded to foreign insurers.

According to him, such structural weakness in the industry meant that most of the large insurance business are  still being underwritten by foreign companies.

Accordingly, he urged insurance practitioners to  reposition themselves so that they can tap into the developmental efforts of NAICOM and correct the structural imbalance.

He lauded NAICOM for  forging ahead with its determination to deepen the market through  Market Development and Restructuring Agenda, MDRI, to meet the N6 trillion premium target, through the enforcement of compulsory insurance which has been on since 2011.

While decrying the harsh operating environment in which insurers operated in the last financial year, Zakariya’u said “Not much progress was recorded in the power sector during the year 2011 as efforts were still geared towards building generation as well as transmission infrastructure. “Total output therefore continues to fluctuate between 3000 to 4000 megawatts, leaving companies with huge expenditure on internal power generation.”he said.

He however expressed hope that the local content Act  which was introduced  by the federal government holds significant potential for the growth of the Nigerian insurance industry, adding, “The policy places responsibility on foreign oil companies to retain a substantial portion of their operations in the local economy.

Aside from addressing capital flight, the regulation provides Nigerian insurers with an appreciable level of exposure to complex oil and gas underwriting risks that could rub off positively on human capital development and underwriting expertise in the industry.”