By ROSEMARY ONUOHA

Commissioner for Insurance and Chief Executive of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Mr. Fola Daniel said that insurance brokers in the country have not brought sufficient energy into the Market Development and Restructuring Initiative (MDRI) in the insurance industry.

Daniel, who made the assertion at the 2011 Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) national insurance conference held in Lagos last week, said that he had expected a more energetic and proactive collaboration from the brokers than is being seen at the moment.

According to him, there is need for the brokers, and indeed the insurance industry to reflect on how to tap into the vast insurance opportunities that currently abound in the country, adding that the insurance industry in Nigeria is yet to fully exploit its potentials.

Daniel noted that in the past two years, the Commission has been under the burden of developing and expanding the insurance market and by extension, increasing the insurance sector’s contribution to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and part of the efforts is the introduction of the MDRI in 2009.

In his words “For emphasis, one of the key objectives of the MDRI is continuous availability of genuine insurance products at the grassroots. Naturally, fake insurance products will thrive in the absence of genuine.”

“We therefore need more brokers and agents at the grassroots. Towards achieving this objective, the Commission has tended to be more liberal with licensing of brokers and agents. Notwithstanding, it appears that brokers have continued to be concentrated only in our major commercial cities.

“This trend must change if we are to truly develop the insurance industry in Nigeria. Beyond MDRI, brokers now have the opportunity even to explore Micro and Takaful insurances. This is important especially in the face of the renewed efforts by world governments towards financial inclusiveness.”

The insurance Commissioner stated that the government has demonstrated renewed commitment for developing the agricultural sector through the launching of the Nigerian Incentive Based Risk Sharing for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) project currently coordinated by the CBN.

“The insurance element in the project is indeed a big plus for the insurance industry. A necessary fallout of this development has been the proposal for deregulating agricultural insurance in Nigeria. At the moment it seems that the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) Act has conferred on NAIC the exclusive right to insure all subsidised agricultural risks. However, opportunities still abound in the areas of commercial unsubsidised agricultural risks.”

Daniel noted that going forward, the Commission shall give appropriate consideration to underwriters desiring to underwrite agricultural insurance under the relevant provisions of the law, noting that existing underwriters are well advised to take advantage of the capacity already accumulated by NAIC. As a means of attaining sufficient capacity for large risks, the Commission shall actively support pool arrangements, co-insurance and facultative reinsurance placements.