Insurers Committee, the body that decides policies and issues in the industry, has agreed to move against financial bidding of insurance business.
The committee comprises the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and chief executive officers of insurance firms.
Briefing reporters after the Sixth Insurers Committee meeting in Lagos, the Vice Chairman, Sub-Committee on Publicity, Mrs. Ebelechukwu Nwachukwu, said it was not proper for organisations to ask for bidding fees from insurance companies.
He said the issue of insurance companies participating in financial bidding was sensitive and that it formed their major discourse at the meeting, adding that the committee has postponed the industry rebranding project next January.
According to her, the draft was unveiled by the Commissioner for Insurance, Mohammed Kari, at the meeting giving the operators one month period to critically examine the draft and inject their contributions.
She said risk base supervision would enable insurance undertake risks in line with their financial capability.
“We discussed the issue of financial bidding of insurance business and without mentioning any organisation. We feel that it is not proper for them to ask for bidding fees from insurance companies.
“It was a very sensitive discussion and it took quite an extensive time discussing it. When you talk about financial biding, different organisations with different policies have their ways. Some may just decide that they want to take a particular circle but what we eventually agreed is that we should come together as an association to promote the interest of the industry.
“Some of us brought up the issue that if an organisation decides to bid and the regulator threatens to penalise the person for doing a financial bidding, how does the organisation sue the regulator for doing that because the insurance company is licensed to conduct business. We also looked at financial bid, and asked ourselves that should it be a quarterly amount or something substantial and that is how we came about to say we should totally abstain from it. So, whoever requires it will know that the industry is speaking with one voice and that was where the argument ended,” he said.
Head, Corporate Affairs, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Rasaaq Salami, who spoke on the suspension of the rebranding project from October 1, this year to next January, said the suspension was due to the committee’s inability to fund the budget.
Salami explained that the committee would use the extension period to get the funds together before starting the campaign.
“We informed you at the last Insurers Committee that the rebranding campaign would take off on October 1 but because of the budget constraint we have encountered, it has been postponed to early next year 2017.
“The committee discovered that they need to include the fund required in their respective organisation budget and postponing the project will allow them to do so. It will also enable the committee to use the period to get the funds together before we start the campaign so that we don’t get stuck at the middle,” he said.