'Make National Insurance Commission ,NAICOM insurance sole regulator’

The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) should be the sole regulator of all operators in the insurance industry to mitigate duplicitous and conflicting regulations, an underwriter has said.

The underwriter, who pleaded anonymity, told The Nation that the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) and the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), should be restricted to being the umbrella bodies for practitioners and not self-regulatory organisations.

He noted that NAICOM that is empowered statutorily as the industry’s regulator should undertake the regulatory functions, adding that a situation where NIA and NCRIB claim self-regulatory powers, is an anomaly.

According to him, the scenario where NAICOM will issue operational licence to the brokers while the NCRIB will register the brokers will continue to create problem unless efforts are made to bring all operators under NAICOM.

He said in view of the fact that the broker is a part of the insurance industry, all operators ought to be subjected to the supervision of NAICOM for the good of the industry.

The underwriter said premium rates being paid to arrange insurance contracts should not be fixed by any association, adding that fixing insurance premium rates is not in the interest of the consumers.

He also encouraged the insurance regulator to move beyond issuance of rules and guidelines by ensuring that all operators are actually complying with the laws guiding the practice of insurance in the country.

The underwriter called on NAICOM to encourage the insurance operators to partner with other operators in the financial services industry, to boost insurance penetration, which is still abysmally low.

He said it is high time insurers partnered with the bankers to increase the level of insurance penetration in the country, adding that insurers can leverage on banks to reach their over 25million customer.

To prevent the collapse of any insurance outfit, it also advised NAICOM to make sure that all the existing firms in the industry are viable and sustainable in the interest of all stakeholders.

As the acid test of all good insurance companies is the ability to pay claims when the need arises, NAICOM was urged to always monitor the insurance firm to be sure that these companies are in good condition to be able to pay claims in the future.