The Commissioner for Insurance, Mr. Fola Daniel, has said that about 12 insurance companies have been given licences to open offices abroad since the regulatory-induced recapitalisation ended in 2007.He said this during an interview with our correspondent, he also said that only one company was granted licence to open a new firm locally since 2007.Daniel said, We have given more than a dozen companies licences, and these companies are in Ghana, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Uganda.He noted that there were big opportunities in the country, which the underwriters were yet to maximise. He stressed the need for insurance companies to maximise the opportunities available in the local market.The commissioner, who observed that many of the firms opened offices in countries that had less potential than Nigeria, said that NAICOM would start to consider that the companies first expand their bases in the country before giving them the licences to open offices abroad.Daniel said, Many of the companies have gone into countries that do not have enough insurable risks, like Nigeria, our market has not been fully maximised. For this reason, we will ensure that any company that wants to open office abroad first expands its presence in major parts of the country, and meet the new criteria before being permitted to open abroad.According to the commission, for now, it will not issue any new licence to the any firm to open a new office in the country again.He noted that the industry had recorded some significant developments of recent.The NAICOM boss said, The industry has the opportunities, it has great potential population.He, however, observed that there was a lot of insurance gap as many people were yet to embrace insurance as means of managing their risks.He said, The insurance companies have woken up to the reality that unless they run, they will not bridge this gap, and the capital which they have gathered, will not be utilised properly in doing the business. They will be under performing.Daniel observed that the rate of insurance awareness had become relatively higher than it was in 2007, adding that the perception of the public about insurance was also changing for better.He said that the campaign on the enforcement of compulsory insurance in Nigeria was reaching climax and that the insurance companies were now beginning to key into the project. Beyond sales marketing, he said that some insurance companies had actually joined NAICOM in sensitising the public and creating awareness on the existence of these compulsory insurance through advertisement campaigns.According to him, the commission will float an advertisement campaign to further draw the attention of the public to these insurance policies and also warn and educate them about the benefits and consequences of non compliance. The commissioner said that NAICOM had continued to benchmark developments in the Nigerian insurance industry against those of its other counterparts in other jurisdictions.We may not yet have attained the same level of development, but we have definitely achieved an appreciable level of growth and development since 2007. Daniel said.
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