By Patience Saghana

Barr Jimoh Ibrahim has said that insurance industry’s major problem in Nigeria is lack of public sector patronage rather than low capital base of insurance companies. This is against the backdrop of the N20billion capital base for insurance companies suggested by Imo State Governor, Dr. Ikedi Ohakim.

.The duo tend to disagree on insurance industry’s past and proposed recapitalization which are yet to be sufficiently justified over the years by those who that enacted the laws.

Barr Ibrahim at the 14th Champion Insurance Day Lecture held in Lagos recently with the theme, “Nigeria at 50: Building an insurance Driven Economy amid Reforms’, said that insurance industry’s problem was not recapitalisation but that the sector was in dare need of government’s patronage through insuring its vast assets in the country.

Barr Ibrahim though commended the efforts of the National Insurance Commission in the last three years for the regulator’s time_tested initiatives which has greatly helped the industry but advised that the commission should endeavour  to place less priority on recapitalisation and see how the sector could command adequate patronage from the public sector.

The NICON chairman challenged insurance sector to support environmental_ friendly polices whiling advising them to kick against policies that inhibit the growth and development of the industry.

Ibrahim further admonished NAICOM to be careful of policies that undermine practitioners’ efforts at growing the industry just as the business mogul tasked insurance commission to continue to initiates policies that would further develop the nation’s insurance industry. He said, “Regulators come and go but practitioners will remain hence we must be careful.

On the contrary, Dr Ikedi Ohakim, Imo State governor said there was the need for the insurance industry to embark on another round of recapitalisation to the tune of N20 billion minimum capital base for insurance companies. Ohakim advised insurance operators to come up with business generating initiatives more especially on mass insurance in order to boost individual and overall income of the sector.
According to him, “The time is now for the Insurance industry to plan for mass insurance programme

“The insurance industry being a major growth agent in its primary and secondary roles in the development of any country must now be woken from slumber, rebranded, re_engineered and modernized to assist current and future reform efforts aimed at driving the economic emancipation and expansion of Nigeria”

He affirmed further, “There are many reforms going on in the country today. The banking reform is a typical example, adding that the reform going on in the banking industry was well publicised and debated in the media consistently, stating that the reverse was the case with reforms in the insurance industry.

The Imo State Governor stated that for this reason, insurance industry must take a dramatic turn to reposition the sector for public debate and appreciation as a matter of urgency.

“If other nations of the world could transform their  economies through the mechanism of insurance, we must start today to set our priorities right in this regard, to know where we missed it and what we should be doing at this stage to get it right”, he stated.