LAGOS – The first 100 days of Mr Olusegun Ayo Omosehin, the newly appointed Commissioner for Insurance and Chief Executive Officer (CFI/CEO) at the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), has been beefed with activities in a view to repositioning the Commission for higher performance, effectiveness and efficiency.
By so doing internal structures have been enhanced by restructuring and capacity building of the staffers initiated as to fashioning a new direction for sound implementation of policies and enforcement of regulations.
Raising the stake in the Commission’s bid to have a trusted insurance sector; the CFI said he would be prioritizing restoration of public trust and confidence in the sector, claims settlement and soundness of the operators among others.
The 7th Commissioner for Insurance, Mr Segun Omosehin along with his new team had just made his first 100 days in office having assumed their new assignment on the 3rd May 2024.
In his maiden parley with a section of the media in Lagos recently, the CFI stressed his determination to prioritise the interest of the policyholders and restore public trust and confidence in the sector.
He pointed out that the new management of the Commission is poised to uphold the tenet of Promise and Utmost good faith with which insurance principles are embedded by ensuring that complaints about delayed claims or outright denials are minimized.
Omosehin, warned the operators to be wary of any act that would bring about further erosion of public confidence in insurance sector noting that claims attitude of the insurance companies must change.
Speaking on his five strategic focuses of his tenure, the CFI highlighted restoration of public trust and confidence in insurance; engagements with stakeholders including the operators; well projected insurance market; consumers’ confidence in the sector as well as future of the sector in its first focus approach.
In addition, he said, the Commission would strengthen the internal capacity of its staff to be able to function properly, while ensuring the institution of legal framework for which a new legal directorate has been created to ensure that legal matters and the enforcement of regulations and other related issues are properly addressed by the Commission.
The NAICOM boss, expressed his concern over the soundness of the operators saying that ensuring that companies in the industry are well positioned to meet their statutory obligation and the expectation of the public is of utmost concern to the management. He said the decision is to ensure that the sector enjoys the trust and confidence of the public.
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Other areas of interest as noted by the CFI include; the operators attitude to claims settlement which he stressed that attitude to claims settlements must change and preparing the market for the ultimate $1trillion economy projected by the federal government in 2030 asserting that since the financial sector is championing the course, insurance would also take position in aligning with the projection.
“I will like to say that settling down in my new office, has been interesting for me. Like many of you might be aware, I have spent 31 years of my career in the private sector. At certain times, I had to lead different organisations at different times.
Some at the point of startups and others at the point of transformation and the motive has always been profitability. So, all of my career progression has always been driven by one consideration which is profitability. Interestingly, I had a change of my fate now that I was appointed by Mr President to lead a team at NAICOM as insurance industry regulator.
That means the priority has to change, my thinking has to change. So the first thing I did was to onlearn all those things, the new concept of serving the people in the interest of public. And I will continue to learn and relearn and relearn all those things over again. So, the first thing was to settle down and take the assignment seriously.
Some of the key factors that I can attribute here are those business principles I have learned for over three decades.
These, I believe would come to play in the public service and where my motive is currently, is how to serve the public good, defend the interest of the industry, and the consumers precisely. So now I am on the side of consumers and it takes priority over whatever I think.
The last three months has been very instructive because as an industry one has to do a whole lot in terms of putting a direction for them and sharing it with the market. We started off on May 3rd when we resumed officially even though our appointment was announced on the 19th of April.
One of the key things we did was to quickly put thoughts together so as to champion a plan for the commission. We commenced one of the initial head work by looking internally and what we had on ground. And then we had an engagement with the entire market which involved having sessions with key stakeholders, the NIA, NCRIB and the ILAN.
We met the legislators, particularly, those that are saddled with oversight functions over insurance and actuarial matters. And we met with some consumer groups who we see as champions properly with concerns from the consumers’ side. All of these engagements actually came very handy in fashioning a blueprint of what I call our strategic priorities.” He said.
Omosehin expressed optimism that the future of the commission and the sector is brighter now better than ever attributing same to the way economy has moved in recent times.
