By Patience Saghana
As global economies  countries are creeping out of the worst financial crisis ever, Insurance practitioners are looking up to the federal government to introduce business  friendly policies that would help the financial sector recover fully from the scars of the global crisis.

After successfully weathering one of the worst global financial crises in history, environmental-friendly policies would help turn-around developing nations’ economies like that of Nigeria and by extension the insurance industry.

These were the words of Mr Femi Okunniyi, Managing Director of Goldlink Insurance Plc in Lagos last weekend in a chat with  Vanguard.Okunniyi said, “We have come to realise that the economic facet of this nation rest in our own hands, starting from our government”

Cheerfully, Goldlink Insurance boss was appreciative of Government’s legislations in recent past which have supported the future outlooks and growth of the industry.

Regulations that have been enacted by the Government recently that have supported the growth of the insurance industry  as he highlighted are:

Compulsory insurance of all public buildings as well as those under construction; Compulsion of all private sector organisations operating in Nigeria to enroll their employees in the National Health Insurance Scheme to boost the resource base of the scheme;  National Insurance Commission’s ensuring that any inhibitions to local Insurers participating in the oil and Gas business are removed.

He said that it had also worked to ensure that ‘consortium bidding’ is strongly considered by the Oil and Gas companies in selecting insurers for participation in the Oil and Gas business. The effort is geared towards achieving a wider spread in participation by local insurance companies;

He appreciated the increase in the participation rate from 10 perc ent to 45 per cent in 2007 and 70 per cent in 2010 and Local Content law, adding that  government should also address tax law which places  separate tax on gross income

In furtherance to the implementation of these legislation, Okunniyi noted, “We have witnessed growth in the activities of insurance companies.

Never had so many developing nations been flushed with capital as they are today. China’s international reserves rose nearly 26 per cent in the first quarter, to $2,500bn, versus the same period a year ago. Brazil’s reserves soared 28.1 per cent in the first three months of this year, while the reserves of Poland, South Korea and Russia rose 40 per cent, 32 per cent and 15 per cent respectively.

The robust financial health of emerging markets is one key reason we think investors with a long-term horizon should use the most recent market pull-back to add selectively to their emerging market exposure.

Insurance companies in developing nations, Okunniyi reiterated would benefit from the coming global policy shift, which pivots around multi-year fiscal consolidation which is also complemented by rising spending among capital-rich emerging nations.