The Association of Registered Insurance Agents of Nigeria(ARIAN) has thrown its support on the recent introduced Tier-based regime for the insurance industry.
Speaking on behalf of insurance agents at a press briefing in Lagos, its President, Ademola Ifagbayi, also called for an extension stressing that an extension will give more time to underwriters to explore the best option to recapitalise.
Stating that the association fully supports NAICOM move, he believes insurance companies need more time to understand the new recapitalisation model and make a decision on where to play in.
According to him, “ARIAN is in total support of NAICOM on the new tier based insurance recapitalisation exercise. However, we will like to appeal to NAICOM to consider Nigerian Insurers Association(NIA) position in order to make the process easy and convenient for all stakeholders.”
Ifagbayi, who is also a General Manager in Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc, said, insurance agents are partner in progress and will always support any development aimed at deepening insurance penetration, acceptance, profitability and increases insurance contribution to the Gross Domestic Product(GDP) of the country.
He believes the recapitalisation is a welcome development that will lead to existence of financially strong insurers able to deploy the strength of insurance agents to penetrate the nooks and crannies of the country.
The Federal Government, through NAICOM, has introduced a 3-tier based recapitalisation for the insurance industry, giving October 1, 2018 as the commencement date.
To this end, all insurance companies must have recapitalized and communicate to NAICOM which Tier each of them is expected to play in.
This is coming 10 years after the earlier recapitalisation, which took place in 2007 in insurance industry in the country.
