By Favour Nnabugwu

Egyptian officials have given firm assurances that necessary precautions have been taken to ensure the safety of the 700 delegates before, during and after the 40th African Insurance organisation national assembly/conference. The Chairman of the Local Organising Committee, LOC and also the chairman of Insurance Federation of Egypt, Mr. Abdel Raouf Kotb speaks on the safety and well being of Nigerians, and other delegates in this interview.

How prepared is Egypt for the huge number of delegates to the AIO conference

We are working hard, professionally and doing our best to make this conference the most successful of AIO conferences. We have a great number of sponsors and the registration is going great, most of the delegates paid deposits in the hotels that we chose for the accommodation although we got informed before that most African delegates could not pay deposits. We have got an amazing support from the Egyptian Government, the Prime Minister and Ministry of Foreign Affairs in addition to the Egyptian Insurance Market which supports this event represented by the Insurance Federation of Egypt.

The LOC members are very qualified representatives from the Egyptian Insurance Market that have excellent knowledge and experience in organizing the very important insurance conferences and events in Egypt and around the world. We have a very strong marketing plan which is an important element of our strategic plan for this conference.

We have chosen one of the most famous and important hotels in Egypt a well-known brand “Marriott “, this hotel is one of the most secured hotels in Egypt. Marriott was chosen recently by US Secretary of State John Kerry in his recent visit to Cairo a month ago.

*Abdel Raouf Kotb

How safe is Cairo with the mirage of unrest in that country

The unrest is already there and we can’t deny it, but we all know and have experience with media and  very well how much they exaggerate things and spot on an accident. Our normal life is going on and we are not facing terrorist operations, it is just a political conflict. Anyway, the Media here in Egypt are like the Media in any other country, they amplify things and events.

How many times did we learn about very bad and critical situations in the surrounding countries through the media and once we visit them we found nothing and for me I supported many countries before in the same situation to keep the hosting of same or such as these conferences and I think our estimation was correct.

The most important point here that should be cleared to everyone is, this is our country’s image and the delegates of this conference are our guests in Egypt and we are very keen about their safety and we will make sure that their stay in Egypt is safe and interesting to them.

We as well as the LOC members are part of this huge city, we are living in it, working and doing all our life activities and I think there is no important guarantee more than this!

And of course we can value the situation better than who judged the situation through television screens or newspaper articles. But to ensure that all our delegates feel safe we promise that if at any time before the conference we feel that the political situation in Cairo will affect them negatively we will transfer the conference to another Marriott branch in

Egypt and maybe we will discuss this matter soon in the LOC meeting and try to do this not because we are feeling unsafe but to make the delegates feel safe if this is their wish! We don’t have any problem and I think this will not affect our conference budget.

Marriott Cairo is located in Zamalek and it’s one of the wealthiest and historical places. It is a modern place in Cairo and with all the critical situations in Tahrir Square and other places even at the revolution period it wasn’t affected. It’s one of the most famous areas in Cairo that attracts foreigners and many embassies are located there. Also we will be supported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs “Police” and the Zamalek police department is very near the hotel. As I told you before, this conference is supported by the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Do you have your government support?

The Egyptian government is fully supporting the AIO Conference; a team from the Ministry of foreign Affairs will be with us during the Conference. The team of the organizing committee has a long experience in organizing conferences and they work on the logistics professionally. Everything is going great! We have a contract with one of the biggest transportation companies in Egypt to cover the conference starting with the first delegate’s arrival ending with the last delegate’s departure, 24 hours service!

In addition to the support and sponsorship of Egypt Air which provided a discount to all the conference delegates from all around the world and the company representative and both will be in the conference to provide special service to all the conference delegates that already chose Egypt Air.