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 50^th 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.