By Favour Nnabugwu

Insurers Committee said it has concluded arrangements to give the Nigerian insurance industry a 10 year strategic document that will codify the long-term aspiration of the industry.

The decision was taken during the Insurers Committee meeting which took place in Lagos today.

Briefing journalists after the meeting, the vice-Chairman, Publicity Sub-Committee, Mr. Segun Omosehin, said all the associations in the industry have been asked to nominate their members who will constitute a committee that will take charge of drafting the document.

According to him, “Today we deliberated on the need for an industry-wide strategic plan, a strategic document that will codify the long-term aspiration of the industry within a given period of ten years.

Omosehin who is also the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Old Mutual Insurance PLC, said the document will be a high level document that will have in it what the industry intends to achieve, adding that work on the document will commence soon.

“The need for a strategic plan is to enable us as an industry has codified strategic initiatives that will be implemented over a given period of ten years. This will help the successive leadership that comes in so that there are no vacuum.

It helps guide the action of leadership in terms of what we want to achieve as industry. It keeps us in focus. That is what the strategic document is meant to do for the industry and it will cut across the entire gamut of the industry from underwriting to broking to adjusting. It is going to be a ten-year plan,” Omosehin explained.

The industry rebranding project, according to him, becomes an integral element of the document.

He said the industry’s proposed strategic document is to help each successive leader that comes in, for example, Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), for instance, if am running for two years, there is a need for a broader industry-wide initiative that I am expected to run along with my own plan, this, he said, will help every leader to achieve an industry-wide objective.

Also speaking on the document, a member of the committee, and Head, Corporate Communication and Market Development, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Mr. Rasaaq Salami, said NAICOM as a regulator, will be part of the plan which, according to him, will cover the various associations in the industry.

He said different associations in the industry have been asked to nominate members that will be part of the committee that will handle the drafting of the document.

Mr. Omosehin said other decision taken at the meeting was the revise guidelines on Bancassurance.

“We received some cheery news that regulator is likely to release some new guidelines on Bancassurance. Some elements in the guidelines are being reviewed and so we are hopeful and looking forward to some revised role on the operations of Bancassurance,” he said.