The Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers has called on the Federal Government to reconsider its stand on the classification of the National Insurance Commission as a revenue-generating agency.
The President of the Council, Babatunde Oguntade, made this call at the retreat organised for members of the House Committee on Insurance and Actuarial Matters recently in Lagos.
Oguntade noted that the insurance supervisory fund levy being paid by insurance institutions was meant for the regulatory supervision and market development drive of the insurance industry by the commission.
He said, “Placing the insurance supervisory fund levy within the single treasury account system would encumber the financial solvency position of the commission and ostensibly hinder the market much desired insurance growth in the country.”
The NCRIB president noted that the insurance industry, which should be the linchpin of the economic revival efforts of the government in Nigeria, was currently fragile.
He advised, “The lawmakers should encourage the government to exempt the commission from the revenue generating agencies it was recently classified as.
“Lawmakers should also work expeditiously on the passage of the 2022 Consolidated Insurance Bill, which when passed into law, would cure the various inadequacies in the existing Insurance Act 2003 and the 1997 NAICOM Act, for the steady growth of the industry.”
Oguntade expressed concerns that government institutions were lax in ensuring that the human and material assets of the government were adequately insured.
He appealed, “I implore the lawmakers to reverse the tide by encouraging performance of the implementation of insurance budgets by Ministries, Departments and Agencies for the overall growth of the insurance and its accelerated contribution to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.”