CIIN President, Mr. Wole Adetimehin

The umbrella body for insurance professionals in the country, Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), has concluded arrangement to train middle managers in insurance companies on how to improve the level of satisfaction for customers.

The institute said this was part of its contributions toward assisting insurance companies to deliver on their promises, particularly now that they are exploring ways of reaching the grassroots with their products, using takaful and micro-insurance means.

The Director of Corporate Communications at the institute, Mr. Joseph Obah, stated this in a release, and said the training programme would hold in the course of the 2012 Education Seminar of CIIN holding in Port Harcourt, Rivers State next week.

According to him, in order to meet their expectations in the area of micro-insurance and takaful, the operators would have to address the imperatives for improved service delivery and ensuring that the policyholder is protected at all times.

He noted that while, insurance companies explore ways of employ takaful and micro-insurance to increase penetration, and insurance practitioners should rightly shift their focus to how to raise the level of satisfaction of consumers of insurance services across the country.
Obah said that the seminar with theme, ‘Making Insurance Count’, provides the industry a platform for training and retraining managers and other middle level personnel in the industry.
It was designed to bring into focus the imperatives for growing insurance bigger in public perception while examining the ways and means by which branch office operations could be strengthened to guarantee prompt resolution of customer related issue, he explained.

Also reflecting on the seminar, the CIIN President, Mr. Wole Adetimehin said “the resolution of all customer related issues should be a win-win situation with the customer and the service provider occupying positions of mutual respect.”

According to him, the theme of the programme reflects the compelling need for professionals to make insurance count for the policyholder through deliberate shift in strategy and improvement in service delivery to ensure that the customer’s genuine interest is protected over and above business interest.

Resource persons for the seminar include the Managing Director of Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc, Mr. Wale Onaolapo and Mr. Wehinmi Jemide.

Insurance penetration in Nigeria is bogged down by the less than optimal level of public awareness even as it remains an essential index for measurement of national development although lacking in its expected degree of presence in both individual and national consciousness.

Caption: Mr. Eddie Efekoha, MD, Consolidated Hallmark
Consolidated Hallmark Settles N600m Claims in Q3
Nnamdi Duru
Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc, one of the non-life risks underwriting companies in the country, said it paid claims worth over N600 million to various customers between January and September in 2012.

The Managing Director of the company, Mr. Eddie Efekoha, confirmed this while fielding questions from journalists shortly after presenting the cover document for the Group Accident Insurance, which his firm donated to journalists covering the insurance beat to the leadership of the National Association of Insurance Correspondents (NAICO) in Lagos recently.

According to him, “at the end of third quarter CHI has paid out claims worth over 600 million, demonstrating its unreserved commitment to meet policyholders’ expectations.”
This figure, according to him, was higher than the N512 million the firm paid for the whole of last year, even as he stated his expectation that the claims figure might double that of last year by the end of the year.

On why the firm was not worried over the rising claims figure, Efekoha said: “For us as a company, we recognise that we are in business to pay claims and therefore we must operate and ensure we do not fail. When we do that, satisfied clients would recommend other people to us. So it is a business that is built on referrals such that existing clients refers you when you have done well and we will continue to do that in the mist of changing environment.”

The company’s boss noted that notwithstanding the harsh business environment and challenging regulatory regime, his organisation recorded growth in its relevant indices saying “for our company, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance plc, l will say that we are happy with where we are, having achieved a very modest growth. The key driver of our business from the start is our people; the staff and the board.”

Efekoha also reviewed the performance of the Nigerian insurance industry in the current year, noting the industry’s high hope was hinged on the expectation that the Federal Government transformation agenda would spill over to insurance in terms of business generation has been dashed.

“Government as a major spender could impact on our business if only they will execute the different projects and programmes, of course, the different sectors of the economy including insurance will benefit.

“We had thought that things will go upwards but I do not think that will happen given that we are already in the 10th month in the year. Suffice it to say that the industry has grown as we are still providing immediate service to the general economy as a stabiliser,” he said.

He also recalled key events that impacted on the industry including the Dana air crash and now the nationwide flood.

“Flooding is part of what we regard as special peril and is part of the fire policy. But whether the current flooding is what we anticipated becomes another issue because natural peril is difficult to cover and that is why government is regarded as an insurer in case of natural perils.

“As far as this one is concerned, a lot of the places that were affected are not major buyers of insurance yet because most of the affected areas are yet to see much development but for a true flood, like the rain we had in Lagos some time, insurance came to the rescue,” he said.

“The current flooding is not caused by rainfall but as a result of other issues. So to that extent, flood is part of what we cover in insurance and each case like we say will be looked at on its own merit. Those who are affected by flood and whose properties have been destroyed by this recent case and have insurance should put up their claims and the respective insurance companies will look at it within the ambit of the policy they have issued,” Efekoha assured.