Sunday Thomas, deputy commissioner for Insurance, Technical at NAICOM who dropped the hint in Lagos said the Commission was going to be critical with disclosure forward and in conformity with global regulatory standard.
He said a lot of attention will be paid to risk management in its regulatory plan for 2019, stating that NAICOM plans to review the new Nigerian Code of Corporate Governance and see what can be implemented in the insurance industry.
Joe Irukwu, professor and icon of the Insurance industry, in a forward written on Insurance Industry Code of Corporate Governance in 2009 had said:
“The intractable problem of risks and uncertainties has been the greatest challenge to humanity on this planet, from time immemorial. This problem has remained unresolved despite the great advances that we have witnessed in the areas of science and technology. “
“From the social and economic viewpoint, insurance was the most ingenious creation of the human mind in response to this risk problem. For well over 2,000 years, the insurance concept has been universally recognized as a vital factor in the protection of the national economy since no modern economy can function efficiently without the support of a viable and disciplined insurance industry”.
Irukwu said in recognition of this situation, most modern governments attach great importance to the quality and efficiency of their insurance industries. This explains why it has become imperative for each country to have an efficient insurance regulatory system to supervise the activities of the insurance industry.
According to him, this concept of an insurance regulatory system was first embraced by Nigeria, on a modest scale in 1961 under the provisions of the Insurance Act of that year. With the expansion and increased sophistication of insurance business in Nigeria, a regulatory agency under the name of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), was created to perform this service as well as other services embodied in the enabling Act.
“The present leadership of NAICOM has embarked on some positive steps in order to promote the quality and efficiency of the insurance industry, for the benefit of insurance consumers and the national economy. The most recent of these positive innovations from NAICOM is the introduction of a Code of Business Ethics and Principles on Corporate Governance for the Insurance Industry which I have read with great interest. Undoubtedly, if its principles are enforced, we will certainly have a first class insurance industry that would be as good as any of the best in the insurance world, Irukwu argued.
