Controversy Trails NAICOM Chairman’s Stake In Insurance Brokerage Business

Corporate governance breakdown was fingered by insurance industry stakeholders following revelation that the current chairman of the National Insurance Commission(NAICOM), Alhaji Abubakar Sani, has a stake in insurance brokerage business.

LEADERSHIP investigation had earlier revealed that the current chairman of the insurance industry regulatory body is also a director in ADSA Insurance Brokers Limited.

The insurance firm, it was learnt, was incorporated in Abuja, precisely in Garki, where it is operating from and registered in 2016 with Registration Number 1363742.

This development, however, shows that the NAICOM chairman is a regulator and an operator at the same time, which market observers believe, is a breakdown of corporate governance in insurance industry and an indictment on the federal government that appointed him.

They faulted the federal government for not carrying out due diligence before the appointment. In the current circumstance,, they said, having an operator occupying the position of a regulator could becloud the sense of judgment or warrants sympathy from the regulatory body when dealing with matters that affects the business environment of the chairman.

An anonymous source who is the managing director/CEO of a top insurance firm, while speaking with LEADERSHIP said, this is a clear breakdown of corporate governance, adding that, “if this issue affects an insurance company, NAICOM will quickly jump at sanctioning such operator. Many times, we have been penalised for breakdown of corporate governance. As a managing director of our company, we were not allowed by law to float an Insurance broking firm because it is believed to be unethical. This is similar to the current situation of the NAICOM chairman. He should have relinquished his position in the broking firm before becoming the chairman of the regulatory body.”

If this situation is not addressed, he said, this would amount to double standard and could be sending a bad signal to the industry that the regulator is trying to sanitise.

An insurance broker, when interviewed by LEADERSHIP yesterday, was surprised such scenario could play out, especially, when Sani has been an advocate of entrenching ethics and professionalism in the insurance industry since his appointment.

While the broker was happy that someone from the broking fraternity is chairing the regulatory body, he felt, it would be partisan and abuse of office for someone to be a supervisor of his own business.

This development, he said, must be addressed as a matter of urgency if truly NAICOM is serious about sanitising the insurance industry.

Efforts by LEADERSHIP to reach NAICOM’s spokesperson, Mr. Rasaaq Salami for comment on the issue proved abortive as his phones were switched off as at the time of writing this report.

Abubakar Sani was among the four people whose appointment to the board of NAICOM was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari in April 2022.

While he is to chair the board, Robert Ohuoba, Ijeoma Chinenye Ekeocha and Muazu Barau were members.

Sani holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration and a Bachelor’s Degree in Actuarial Science, both from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), as well as Honorary Doctorate Degree in Management.

A press statement by the Special Adviser, Media & Communications to the Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning, Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi, announcing his appointment and three others in April 2022, said: “the appointment of the part-time chairman and members followed the expiration of the tenure of the current board members on March 7, 2022; having been appointed for a four-year term with effect from 8th March, 2018.

“Based on the terms of appointment of the chairman and members of the board of the commission as stipulated in Section 3(1) of the NAICOM Act 1997, they are expected to hold office for a period of four years.”