By Rosemary Onuoha

President of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), Mr.   Kayode Okunoren has said that the present situation serves as a good avenue for government to begin to pay more emphasis to diversification of the nation’s economic mainstay from oil.

Okunoren also said that there must be a re-tuning of the minds of Nigerians from rabid consumption of foreign goods and services at the expense of those produced locally.

Okunoren who stated this in Lagos said, “The penchant for luxuries has to be curtailed so as to preserve the nation’s available meager foreign monetary reserve for the essentials, rather than fritter them on irrelevances. It is definitely a period that calls for sacrifice on the part of all Nigerians, including the leadership, if the present crusade would achieve long lasting positive results. I whole heartedly align myself with the timeless wisdom that ‘to be successful as an individual or a nation, you must decide exactly what you want to accomplish, and then resolve to pay the price.”

According to Okunoren, the economic challenges being faced by the country at the moment as the value of the naira has continued to take a downward plunge against the dollar, pound sterling and other currencies, to the detriment of the nation’s economy, has the resultant negative effect on the nation’s economic revival efforts.

He said, “Aside from the possibility of stagnating industrial development and favourable trade, the situation is already causing increasing inflationary rate that is affecting the common man in the street. The mono economy has left the country helpless. Definitely, the insurance industry is not insulated from these grievous indices of economic recession. It is a tough time we must all admit.”

Okunoren added that there could not have been a better time to raise the issue of insurance of national assets than now, in view of the present administration’s disposition to prudence in management of the nation’s resources.