The Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) has stressed the need for a reawakening on the part of insurance practitioners in ensuring the continued sustenance of the profession and business of insurance.
The President/Chairman of Council of the Institute, Dr. Wole Adetimehin, who stated this recently at the opening of the institute’s 2011 education seminar entitled :‘Insurance and the Social Media Revolution,’ in Enugu, said that the clarion call became necessary going by the increasing threats to lives and property in the country.
“These developments engender causes for concern to our industry. The threats to lives and property in a country where insurance awareness is less than optimal, remains a serious cause for worry,” Adetimehin said.
He noted that Nigeria like many other countries of the world was faced with some abiding challenges of climate change and that the challenges of an increasingly volatile environment was manifesting in the country with all-time-high rains and floods.
According to Adetimehin;“We are also appalled by the spate of terrorism with dimensions not familiar in our country. In addition, the citizenry are daily under pressure as a result of widening deficits in infrastructural facilities, such as roads, electricity supply and basic health requirements.”
He noted that the Institute has commenced an awareness campaign geared at entrenching insurance.
“ As you can see, the theme of this seminar lends credence to the Institute’s ongoing drive in this direction. No doubt, there is need for a reawakening on the part of insurance practitioners in ensuring the continued sustenance of the profession and business of insurance.
“The theme of my presentation: ‘Repositioning the Insurance Profession,’ is a clarion call on all to join in promoting the relevance of insurance in the scheme of things. We must therefore begin by making our profession relevant by our actions and convictions so that others can follow suit,” the president said.
He noted that part of the current efforts of the institute was in the area of enhancing the quality of Insurance education in Nigeria.He said that the institute believed that the future of all professions depended largely on the quality of knowledge and skill possessed by the practitioners and insurance could not? be an exception.
Adetimehin listed the main pivots under which the current efforts is being pursued to include the development and completion of the Institute’s College of Insurance and Financial Management and its effective takeoff, aimed at mobilising new entrants into the profession, establishment of a functional research department at the Institute to pursue studies in the technical areas of Insurance and products’ lines aimed at propelling growth in the industry, and initiation of a national insurance debate among all tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
He noted that the professional examination has remained the fulcrum of the statutory roles of the Institute and would continue to receive its undivided attention.
Adetimehin? urged the leadership of the Institute’s branches nationwide to encourage their members to embrace the examinations and become professionally qualified.