The National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN) honoured Union Assurance with the  2010 Socially Responsible company of the year Award. Princewill Ekwujuru spoke with the Managing Director, Mr. Godwin Odah on the company’s achievement in relation to the deployment of marketing as a tool to attain its present position. Excerpt.

Your company just won the Socially Responsible Company Award 2010.  what does this signify?

It signifies a lot. It is an acknowledgment of our  humble achievement, particularly in the last two years when we started our restructuring programme.  The important part of that restructuring was to transform the company into a marketing organisation.

And for the only institute of  marketing, which is the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN) to acknowledge our effort is obviously a loud statement and for us, it is an important statement. It means that as a marketing company, the objectives which we set out to achieve is certainly being noticed by the most important marketing regulating institute in Nigeria .

Do we expect a new twist in marketing from the company as a result of this award

What we do is try to build on our achievement, that is the logical thing to do. if it is  recognised that we have achieved something, or at least we are going in the right direction, then, of course, the  only logical thing to do is to build on what we are doing, aim for higher recognition and seek for more achievements.

Would you say that marketing has been successful in the insurance industry, considering the level of apathy of the Nigerian people towards insurance?

That level of apathy you mentioned is the most compelling reason any insurance company that intends to make progress should adopt the marketing company approach, because we are all told, it  is a phrase in the insurance, that insurance is sold not bought, and so really if you want to progress in insurance, you have fine tune the  marketing skills of your staff, you actually have to adopt marketing as a culture, as a  way of life.

So what are you doing to eradicate the lack of confidence of Nigerians in the insurance sector?

Well as a company. I cannot speak for the insurance industry, but as a company, we will endeavour to meet our obligations to our clients, because, I think the most important thing why people take insurance policy is to make provision on the unlikely event that they suffer a loss, the unforseen losses.

And so, when that happens, the most important step an insurance should take in order to re-assure customers is to meet up with their claims, and so, we as a company will continue to do that, if other insurance companies in the market meet their claims obligations to their clients. I believe that  that apathy you talked about will be cleared. Number two, the Nigeria public comes to understand insurance, I thinlk lack of understanding of insurance  that apathy you talked about will change.

To further clear this doubt, we are going to actively engage Nigerians in insurance education, in collaboration with the Nigeria Insurance Association (NIA), the  Chartered Institute of Insurance of Nigeria (CIIN), which is the education arm of the industry. All these we will do to make sure that people understand insurance better, and most importantly when we are called into action. i.e when there is a claim. we will meet this obligation and settle our it promptly.

There is the general observation that Nigerian insurance companies do not pay claims. what is your take on that?
A lot of the observations come from those who had not taken insurance policy in their lives. And because bad news travel fast, bad news tends to spread fast. Most of what you hear is not objective. This is so because people do not understand insurance. Yes! there are times insurance company had  to refuse claim, may be the clams were not covered.