Elumelu Proposes N50m Capital Base For Insurance Brokers

Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Mr Tony Elumelu, has proposed N50 million as capital base for insurance broking firms operating in Nigeria.

Elumelu, who is also founder, Tony Elumelu Foundation, said this yesterday at the 60th Anniversary Colloquium of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) with the theme, “60 Years of Insurance Broking: Redefining the Practice and Practitioners.”

He said it has become necessary to recapitalise the insurance brokerage industry in the country as N5 million was not enough capital base.

“I recommend a minimum of N50 million as capital base; we need to adequately capitalise the brokerage sector.

“The insurance is very important to the economy, so also is the quality of governance, institutions, and practitioners of the sector.

“Insurance is recognised as a technical business that requires special expertise.

“This, therefore, makes it difficult for most people to make the right choice on insurance purchase and also requires professional assistance when claims occur,” he said.

According to him, members of NCRIB have over the years facilitated insurance businesses in hundreds of billions of naira, delighted millions of Nigerians with their professional insurance services and ensured that claims are duly settled.

Elumelu noted that expertise of an insurance broker was crucial, as intermediaries between the insurance consumer and an insurance company.

He charged NCRIB’s leadership to enforce strict adherence to corporate governance by all its members and weed out non-registered and non-compliant members from its fold to maintain its integrity.

He emphasised that in redefining the practice and practitioners in the insurance broking profession, NCRIB should lead the war against unethical practices that had been the bane of the industry for years.

Elumelu listed some of the unethical practices to include premium rate cutting, delayed premium remittance, unremitted premium, overloading of premium, returned premium, fake documents and fraudulent claims.

He also mentioned collusion to defraud, mis-selling, unhealthy competition, misrepresentations, manipulation of policy conditions, self-enrichment methods disguised as marketing expenses, among others.