Ifeanyi Ugwuadu
Sub-regional insurance training school, West African Insurance Institute (WAII) based in the Gambia may be forced to wind up if urgent financial assistance is not extended to it by member countries.

It is not clear yet how the school’s finances worsened, but there are reports that the school is poorly managed even while it is true that it had operated with a lean purse for several years now.

The school’s overdraft facility now stands at US$100,000 (N15million). The school is still confronted by the need to get funds to pay both current and outstanding salaries.

While the management of the institute is said to be putting together strategies to make the school self-sustaining, National Insurance Commission has already commissioned a Save-Our-Soul fund to bridge the financial crisis facing the school and “save the institution from possible collapse.”

In a letter to all insurance companies in Nigeria, the industry regulator had appealed for a minimum donation of $5,000 (N750,000) as Bridging Intervention Fund to settle staff salaries and “other administrative expenses.”

Nigeria’s insurance industry regulator reasoned that the school had produced more than 2,000 middle level insurance professionals across the sub-region and should not be allowed to collapse while several of its products had become chief executives of companies. “A check on past students also revealed that they are contributing enormously to the development of the insurance sector in the sub-region,” NAICOM stated in the letter.

The commission expects that the amount realised will put the school in “good stead to focus on income yielding programmes towards reasonable self-sustenance.” It, therefore, directed companies to pay their donations through the WAII’s Vice Chairman, Mr Justus Uranta, the CEO of Niger Insurance while promising to give a detailed account of the Fund’s use to all donors.

Vanguards’s investigations revealed that NAICOM’s appeal may not yield the targeted $250,000 (N37.5million) as most companies are very cautious of shareholders reaction to the donation. According to some of them, expenditures are now more carefully weighed against the possible gain it will bring and the risk of losing the investment. The financial crisis has also made it imperative for management to cut down on expenses that do not bring in measurable value.

They contend that with the magnitude of support being sought by NAICOM on behalf of the companies, it will require serious financial recklessness to donate such amount to a body.

WAII is closely linked with the West African Insurance Companies Association (WAICA), the sub-regional Association of Insurance Companies in Anglophone West Africa. The Association, which was formed in 1973, is committed to the development of insurance in all ramifications. In order to achieve this objective, the Founding Fathers rightly considered the training of manpower as a vital prerequisite.

This ultimately led to the signing of an Agreement in Monrovia on 2nd August, 1978 between UNCTAD and the Governments of Five(5) Anglophone West African Countries of Nigeria, Ghana, The Gambia, Liberia and Sierra Leone. WAICA, as a representative of West Africa Insurance Industry, was made a Founding Member of the institute

All the power of the Institute are vested in the Governing Council made up of 5 representatives from Nigeria, (3) three from Ghana, and 2 representatives each from Sierra Leone, Liberia and The Gambia. The Commissioners of Insurance of the five Member Countries are members by virtue of their positions.