By KELVIN EGERUE
DOYEN of insurance business in Nigerian Mr. Talabi
Braithwaite has warned insurance operatives in the country to be mindful
of the need to protect the integrity of the profession saying that it
would not worth the industry’s while for it to be sacrificed at the alter
of profitability.
Mr. Braithwaite who is the first Nigerian to promote an
insurance broking firm, T.A. Braithwaite Insurance brokers said that is
now regrettable that many of the practitioners in the Nigeria are driven
purely by the volume of business to be made without consideration for the
ethics and norms of the profession.
Speaking at one of the events which marked the 50th
anniversary of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), Mr.
Braithwaite who is a former president of the institute contended that
there is the urgent need for the CIIN to collaborate with such trade
associations as the Nigerian Insurers association (NIA) and the Nigerian
Council of registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) to effectively moderate
the conduct of practitioners.
"The chase for profitability should be moderated with
integrity", he reiterated.
Braithwaite who commended the federal government for
the opening up of the nation’s insurance landscape courtesy of the recent
privatization of government insurance institutions and recapitalization of
private indigenous ones explained that the era of cutting corners may have
been over.
He had gone ahead to assure those who are apprehensive
of the incursion of banks into insurance business to sheet their sword
arguing that with strict adherence to detect of the practice, the business
will not be outside the reach of the professionals.
"Insurance will soon come to the fore front. Banks in
insurance is no problem so long as they do it with professionalism and not
driven by profitability only", the doyen of insurance emphasised.
He challenged practitioners to take advantage of the
on-going review of existing insurance laws and regulations to propose
amendments capable of gingering growth in the subsector.
Mr. Braithwaite had traced the efforts of fore runners
of the insurance business in Nigeria at establishing good legal framework
revealing that previous governments failed to demonstrate good
understanding of the role of insurance in economic development.
Presenting the enactment of the CIIN charter as a case
in study, he recalled long hours of waiting in the office of the attorney
general of the federal as well as the numerous disappearance of the files
in certain government offices even as he paid tribute to the former
director general of the NIA chief ‘Funmi Adeyemi for his interventions in
getting numerous insurance documents get through to government.