- 2 Hrs With New Chartered Insurance Institute President
- Lady ISIOMA CHUKWUMA Talks About Her New Job
*****
Lady Isioma Chukwuma is a big personality in the Insurance industry. She has not only served on the Council of the Chartered Insurance Institute (CIIN) for years, she was recently elected President of that formidable institution made up of Insurance practitioners. She is also the MD/CEO of Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation incorporated in July 1997 but started operations on 1st January 1978. So she wears two caps. But this lovely Asaba born professional is able and capable having spent about 25 years in the industry starting off with Nigeria Re being her first point of contact with Insurance. Since she came in she has diligently pursued her career and has risen through the ranks to the very top of her career. So enviable is her career that she has worked in virtually all the technical department of the corporation. She has a rich pedigree having been born in Asaba, in Oshimili South LG area of Delta State. She started schooling at our lady of Fatima Primary School, Surulere, Lagos and proceeded to Anglican Girls Grammar School, Asaba where she did her WASC Div. II). She then went to University of Ibadan, to study French. There, she bagged B.A (Hons) 2nd Class Upper Division in (1978). She later went to University of Lagos to do a Master in Public Admin. (MPA) in 1985. She is an Associate of Chartered Insurance Institute, London (1990).
She joined Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation as a Graduate Trainee on 2nd January 1980 and worked in virtually all the Technical departments of the corporation as follows: Marketing/Inward Department from (1980 to 1991), Accident Department from 1991 to 1994, Motor Department from 1994to 1996, and Client Services Department from 1996 to 1999. She also worked in the Property Department from 1999-2005 and Overseas Inward Department from 2005 to March 18th 2009 when she was promoted from Assistant General Manager to Acting Managing Director. Lady Chukwuma was confirmed Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer on the 17th of June 2009, a position she has held till date. Over the years, because she was found to be grow for instance, she has been saddled with a lot of professional responsibilities, Lady Isioma Chkwuma has been a Member of the Governing Council of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria since 1999 to date. She served as the Treasurer of the institute in the year 2013/2014. She is currently the Deputy President and Chairman, Governing Board of the College of Insurance and Financial Management. She was a past President of the Professional Insurance Ladies Association 2001-2003. Past Chairman of the Offices Representatives Committee of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria.
She was the past Chairman of the MANDATORY CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (MCPD) Committee of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria. She was also a member of the membership and professional standards committee of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria. She was member of the Activities Committee of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria and member of the Education Committee of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria. She has attended various courses, seminars and Conference both locally and internationally. She is an Executive Committee Member of the Federation of Afro-Asian Insurers and Reinsurers (FAIR). She is a very committed Christian and is the immediate past President of the Ladies Progressive Society of All Saint Anglican Church, Yaba. In April 2006, she and her husband were knighted into the Order of St. Christopher. Lady Isioma is happily married to Barrister (Sir) Sammy Chukwuma and her. Hobbies include playing computer games, crossword puzzles and watching television. Last Tuesday, at her 20th floor expansive office on Marina, Lagos, City People Publisher SEYE KEHINDE and ISAAC ABIMBADE grilled this formidable woman of substance on her plans for the Insurance industry, and she gave brilliant answers.
******
Congratulations on your new appointment as the President of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria. How does it feel?
I feel honoured. I feel delighted, and I am grateful to God for the privileged and the opportunity. There are so many professionals who qualify to be in this position that I have been counted worthy to occupy this position at this present position, I am highly honoured. I am happy to have gotten to this height at the peak of my career, so to speak.
At the time you took up this position, what went through your mind, in terms of what you had in mind to do for the association?
First and foremost continuous service. As you must have read, I have been in the council since 1999. So I have always has that commitment to put in my best forwards the service of industry in any capacity I find myself the Emerging as the President my aim was to come in and consolidate in what I have been doing in the past, which is continuous service and then most specifically now, as the President, to build upon what my predecessors have done in the past. If their were gaps they had created or if there were programmes they had commenced, but they were unable to finish in their tenure, my is to come in and fill in the gap, in other words, to be able to complete what they had started and bring it to perfect completion.
How do you see the insurance industry today? Is the industry where it should be?
Unfortunately, the industry is not where it should be today, if we are comparing it with other markets, particularly across Africa, in Kenya, South Africa, and other places where insurance penetration is deep. For Nigeria, the level in still very low, the awareness is still very, very low too and the performance is not where it ought to be because of the low awareness of Insurance within the populace. So my focus is to create that awareness. That will ensure and enhance the penetration of Insurance particularly into the Interland and to build Insurance into consciousness of the people, to the level that people will become aware.
Going by my programme, we are starting with the secondary school, creating awareness in the Secondary School. Its not a new venture so to say. It’s a combination of what has been happening in the past, so I am just going to continue in that vein to sensitize the younger ones particularly to catch them young, going to tertiary institutions, going to NYSC Camps to create that awareness for insurance, as a career and a way of life, to build it into the consciousness of people that they should be able to take up insurance.
When they hear about it, they can then tell their parents and send the messages, that way insurance penetration can be better.
That way our ultimate can finally be realized. So we can reach the common man with Insurance.
How can government be of help? How can government keep the insurance industry?
The government agencies can help a great deal. Right now, there are some compulsory insurance that you must do. First and foremost if the government can place that priority on insurance, as it were, and ensure that all government assets and properties are insured, at least you can imagine the amount of premium that will be generated from that sector and then from the government agencies like the Fire Service, the Road Safety, Quality Surveyors, Estate Valuers, if all of them can ensure that they take up the compulsory insurance that they should do, it will help. For instance, for buildings there are specifications that if a building is above particular level there must be compulsory insurance. So, if all those are complied with, I am sure it will increase our performance. It will boost our income generation in the industry.
So government can help us by ensuring compliance, enforcing compliance and making sure that people who ought to take up policies, take up their policies. Government on its own should also ensure that they themselves insure government assets and properties.
How has it been running Nigeria Re, this prestigious institution?
I will say its been quite challenging. But I thank God I have been able to handle it well. Its been 5 years now. Since 2009, I wouldn’t say it been all rosy. Its been quite challenging. To the glory of God I have been able to wade through our ups and downs. I will say we are stabilizing. We are coming not of the stormy weather, the sky can only be our limit.
How different is Nigeria Re from other insurance companies? I know you do different things. Isn’t it?
Oh yes. The typical insurance companies are the primary underwriters. They deal with the populace. Nigeria Re is a re-insurer. They don’t deal with the common man. They deal with Insurance Companies. They provide cover. They provide capacity for insurance companies. So when the insurance companies go out there to meet the insured, so to say, they take up the risk, even risks that are beyond their capacity. They believe they have a reinsurance backing or support. So they are encouraged to take more risks in the believe that when they take excess capacity they will transfer the excess to the re-insurer, who is supposed to know provide cover for that excess. Re-Insurance companies on our own are expected to take our own cover as well. Re-insurance companies also take cover from other re-insurers. So, like you will come to realize, insurance is all about sharing of risks. So, insurance companies deal directly with the insured, Re-insurance companies deal with the insured, and Re-insurance companies called Retro cessionaries. That way, insurance is spread, the risk is spread. So that when there is a claim, its not too much on any one particular person, if you do your arithmetic very well.
The post “nigerians need to know more about insurance” appeared first on citypeople.com.ng.
...Continue to read
0
Comments
