2023 Holds Opportunities For Insurance Industry

The president, Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), Mr. Edwin Igbiti, in his new year message, believes 2023 holds an avalanche of opportunities and possibilities for the insurance Industry and institute.

This, he said, is because in 2022, the industry and his institute bubbled with activities and events; all focusing on building a new insurance industry and how to advance and leverage technologies that would enable the sector flourish in the face of the new business trends and challenges.

We have truly sown the seeds and we will start reaping it this year, he said.

Noting that projections for 2023 for the industry by global economic experts,

revealed that the insurance industry is forecasted to return to premium growth of 2.1 per cent annually on average in real terms following total global premiums falling by an estimated 0.2 per cent in real terms in 2022 due to inflation, he added that, “according to Swiss Reinsurance Institute Sigma Report, this growth is supported by a combination of easing inflation, market hardening in property and casualty lines, as well as stronger life insurance demand. This report carries with it opportunities for us to leverage and boost our industry and the economy.”

On the other hand, he said: “ I know there will be challenges ranging from economic hurdles such as the potential for sustained inflation; to sustainability concerns including climate risk, diversity, and financial inclusion; to rapidly evolving consumer products and purchase preferences.”

“Fortunately, insurance is a business of risk management so, the challenges pointed above should be viewed as opportunities for us. On this note, I would like to affirm with confidence that 2023 will be a good year for all and that it will be a year filled with major achievements, victories and feats for the industry,” he noted.

Igbiti stated that, this year, the institute’s major focus, aside insurance advocacy, will be on infrastructural development of the Victoria Island property, stressing that, as the primer body for insurance professionals in Nigeria, the Institute deserves a structure that is befitting of its status as the home of all insurance professionals.

While appealing to all members and concerned stakeholders to support the Institute in its bid to erect an edifice that will serve as a home for insurance professionals nationwide, he stressed that, the institute belongs to all including the practitioners who wear the toga of insurance professionals.

“It is my hope that as stakeholders, we will continue to lift the Institute higher by actively participating to make the Institute’s programmes and activities in 2023 more fruitful than the previous year,” he said.

The institute, he said, must continue to be at the frontiers of technological

innovations and best industry practices to ensure members’ satisfaction that the theme of his tenure ‘Building a Sustainable Legacy’was birthed. This will guarantee that despite current global uncertainties, the institute will continue to meet the needs and aspirations of its members, he added.