CIIN Promises Good Governance, Best Practices in Insurance Industry

In line with the developments in the financial services sector, the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) says it is determined to enthrone the codes of good corporate governance and best practices in the nation's insurance industry.

Addressing the press in Lagos recently, the CIIN' s President, Mr. Sunny Adeda, stated that the CIIN has continued to gauge the pulse of developments in the financial services sector and, especially the global financial realities, which have made obvious, the vulnerability of the economies of nations, including ours.

He stressed that "We have therefore remained resolute on the enthronement of the codes of good corporate governance and best practice. This we are pursuing through the continuing deployment of our training and retraining modules to keep insurance managers abreast of the global dictates of good business governance."

As the CIIN's Mandatory Continuing Professional Development (MCPD) programme remains pivotal to the strengthening of the industry human capital base, he said the institute has resolved to uphold and strengthen the MCPD scheme through mass participation.

Apart from the structured MCPD courses, he maintained that the institute's flagship programmes like the International Education Conference, the Professionals' Forum and the International Exchange Programme for CEO's are all geared at equipping practitioners for the emerging tasks.

The CEO's exchange programme for 2010 is scheduled for India from October 22 to 30, while the CIINhas also scheduled the Annual Seminar for CEO's and the top echelon of the industry for April in conjunction with the Lagos Business School (LBS) of the Pan African University.

He also confirmed that from October 2009, the old syllabus of the institute has run-off. All students now have to write examination under the new three tier structure i.e Certificate, Diploma and Advanced diploma examination framework.

Besides, he hinted that the council of CIIN is desirous of increasing the offshore examination centres from the initial one in Banjul, The Gambia to three, with plans for centres in Ghana and Sierra Leone.

The CIIN boss stated further that insurance awareness creation still remains the major focus of his administration because he is convinced that the huge deficit in the industry awareness "balance sheet" should be reversed. Towards this direction, the weekly radio awareness programme of the CIIN on the FRCN network service has successfully achieved 20 popular episodes which were aired on Wednesdays between 2.30p.m and 3.00p.m.

Adeda added that "It is now evident that the poor public perception of insurance and the attendant low penetration of insurance in the country could be addressed through mass action by industry operators."

While pointing out that insurance awareness creation requires a multi-dimensional approach, he said this involves reaching the grassroots population on the efficacy of insurance as an agent of development, as well as ensuring that Insurance is made a subject or discipline in both secondary and tertiary institutions nationwide.

He added that the CIIN will continue to encourage insurance companies to continuously review their manpower requirement by adopting a proactive approach to recruiting new entrants into the industry from the stock of young brains across the nation. This is in tandem with CIIN's project 5,000 which is aimed at boosting the industry human capital status by recruiting first class brains from tertiary institutions in the country.

As the regulator's Market Development and Restructuring Initiative (MDRI) is currently occupying the attention of operators, with emerging reflections on the way forward, he said there are overwhelming reasons why the insurance sector should re-define its operations in line with the MDRI, especially in regard to the six compulsory insurances and the efficacy of the agency system.