By Henry Uche, [email protected]
Miffed by the perennial and persistent low penetration, negative public perception, low contribution to the GDP, amid other challenges, stakeholders in the insurance industry value chain said they are not leaving any stone unturned to see that insurance business in Nigeria takes its pride of place in financial sector.
In this interview with risk management expert, Mr. Tobi Osanaiye, who is the president of African Association of Young Insurance Professionals (YIPs Africa), gave some insight on how to address public concerns associated with risk management as well as initiatives designed to promote the sector, among others issues.
Excerpt:
Why YIPs Africa was established
To be the leading organisation in the development of young insurance professionals through tailored education and access to opportunities for the younger professionals across Africa, thereby supporting the continued growth of the African Insurance industry.
We also aim to benefit the industry by promoting the attraction, retention and development of new talents and ensuring that they share our passion for the continued growth, development and prosperity of the African Insurance market.
Your effort at attracting young talents into the profession
The African Insurance market’s future success in this changing environment will depend on attracting and retaining a wider range of skillful young professionals across the continent. It is a big challenge, but it is our duty at YIPs Africa to find ways to increase interest amongst recent graduates and new professionals in the insurance sector.
I interact with university students, and I am impressed by the degree to which young people prioritise their values and how driven they are by having an impact in their careers. But I am also struck by the general lack of knowledge about what an insurance career could be.
Those students who do not come from traditional insurance faculties, such as actuarial. We structured our organisation is to annually request young professionals across the African Continent to submit an Expression of Interest document showcasing what they have done and still doing to further boost the insurance penetration in Africa.
However, winners are always being awarded and given cash prizes at the annual African Insurance Organisation (AIO) conference. Also, as a way of sensitisation and attracting students in the Tertiary institution, we have been able to launch our Maiden Essay Competition for tertiary institutions and winners were awarded during the just concluded AIO conference in Algeria.
Growing and nurturing a robust talent pipeline for the insurance sector is a strategic priority for YIPs Africa. We are undertaking programs and activities which were designed to attract new talent, upskill existing professionals and develop the next generation of executive leaders. Yet, I am acutely aware that we will need to do more as a sector if we are going to succeed in an increasingly competitive recruitment environment, particularly amongst recent graduates and new professionals.
A concerted, focused effort is needed amongst the wide range of stakeholders who have an interest in growing the sector. Using a platform like YIPs Africa, we can articulate the sector’s story, our values-based proposition and amplify it by creating meaningful opportunities for young people to engage in the sector and become more excited about careers in insurance.
But most important, we need to be loud. We need to celebrate our successes. Be compelling in showing how the insurance sector offers rich and rewarding opportunities, particularly for those who want to have an impact.
How to promote insurance education among students
It is worth noting that during our last congress, it was agreed that our next agenda is to pitch our tent across Secondary schools in the African continent and we intend to do that by making use of our Country Directors spread across 48 countries in Africa. By so doing, some of our members have agreed to volunteer themselves to teach insurance in some of the Secondary schools in a way to give back to the industry that made them who they are today.
This program would be officially launched across the continent in collaboration with Insurance institutions and Insurance regulatory bodies which we believe will further solidify the tractions from stakeholders across each region.
Also, to further commit our attraction of students, we intend to initiate a first-of-its-kind “Insurance Online Streams” platform where students can easily learn the rudiments of insurance and how insurance is practiced across various regions in Africa. We believe that the initiative will solidify the knowledge of students before graduation and avail them the opportunity to travel to any other country across the African continent to practice insurance. That will further boost the efforts of the players within the insurance industry to increase the penetration in Africa, whilst the AfCFTA is promising for the insurance industry, we need to begin finding collaborative solutions to pertinent challenges inherent in our industry thereby positioning ourselves to benefit from the regional initiatives effort of AfCFTA.
We are sure that once these students are aware that there is cross-border opportunities (ECOWAS and CIMA Regions) not just in traditional insurance but also in the Insurtech space because the younger generation are more tech-savvy and more opportunities will keep opening which will further reduce the level of unemployment amongst the youth.
Collaborative framework to take Insurance to enviable height?
We are aware that for our industry to attain its full potential, no organization can do it all alone by itself. It is important to note that since the establishment of YIPs Africa till date, we have been collaborating with various institutions such as the African Insurance Organisation (AIO), West African Insurance Companies Association (WAICA), Organisation of Eastern and Southern African Insurers (OESAI), National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Nigeria Insurers Association (NIA) Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), Liberia Insurance Association (LIA) and many other Insurance organization in other regions in Africa.
I would like to mention that for Insurance to thrive, collaborations shouldn’t be limited to the insurance space but with other developmental organisations. However, in the case of YIPs Africa, we have had the opportunity to collaborate with the African Development Bank (AfDB) in affiliation with PS3 Academy at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom on a 10-week training on Sustainable Finance in the year 2022.
Today, we are proud to say that 58 young insurance professionals who have been carefully selected amongst various applicants were granted scholarships to partake in the program and have graduated successfully.
Also, in a bid to add our voices to the climate change challenges ravaging our continent, we became a signatory of the Nairobi Declaration on Sustainable Insurance thereby pledging our allegiance to ensuring a sustainable future for Africa and the world.
Your take on how to promote insurance penetration
One of the major reasons why the Executives of our Association structured our system to have chapters across each country in Africa is because of our strategic blueprint and awareness strategy in piercing through the various market. We have put into consideration the various insurance peculiarity across diverse regions thereby individually approaching each market in the best possible way for the purpose of inclusivity.
We are aware that each region has its own peculiarity, and we might not be able to achieve our mandate if we use the operational Model that works in Region A for Region B because the insurance penetration in each region is different, market sensitivity in each market differs, leadership structure for each region is different and so on.
If you carefully look at the organogram of our Association, you will discover that we have structured it to cover Continental, Regional, and Country specific heads. However, it is the responsibility of the country head to share with the regional head what works in their country after which resolutions would be communicated to the Continental head for policy implementation thereof.
The above process has been working pretty solid because of the quality of the Directors that are working tirelessly every day to make the dream realizable. All these wouldn’t be possible without them, and I think it is very important that I take this time to appreciate them specially.
Practically Your advice on how to make insurance a rewarding profession
In my own opinion, Insurance is one of the most untapped industries in Africa and people are beginning to see it, which is the reason why a lot of opportunities are erupting everyday and if you don’t make use of that chance now, it might be too late tomorrow.
Also, being an insurance professional is a long-lasting career part because it has secondhand value. In other words, even after retirement, you can decide to set up a brokerage firm and continue running your business. If not that, you can decide to act as agent to your customers whom you have managed over the years thereby continuing your rendition of services which comes with financial tractions.
Furthermore, I would encourage young people to join the industry because of the job security that comes along with it because various insurance products are coming up almost every now and then. Hence, one can always decide to diversify one’s specialty while still coasting through the industry dynamics.
How would you deploy your expertise in Risk Management to Influence the government across levels to adopt and ‘factor in’ Proactive Risk Management in their respective National & State Plans, Programs and Policies?
NOTE: RIMSON has advocated the Creation of “Office of Risk Management of the Federation”…
By and large, Governments tend to be risk averse and tend to approach risks in the public sector with a healthy dose of apprehension. The incremental nature of public processes and policies is partly a manifestation of this.
As regards the endemic flooding menace happening in Nigeria which is caused by climate change, in the interim, I would personally opine that three (3) mitigating regulations have to be put in place which would have been easily passed into law if we had the Office of Risk Management of the Federation.
This would include, (1) Avoidance mitigating technique which would be achievable through the analysis of appropriate and practicable alternatives and consideration of impact footprint; (2) Minimization mitigating technique which would be achievable through the incorporation of appropriate and practicable design and risk avoidance measures; (3) Compensatory Mitigating technique which would be achievable through appropriate and practicable restoration, establishment, enhancement, and/or preservation of aquatic resource functions and services.
Risk management in this case has to do with the mitigating measures which prior to final determination need to be shared with governments. It is pertinent to note that, Governments will be keen to consider the nature of the residual risks in the program; these are the additional “costs” to the Governments as a result of implementing the mitigating measures i.e. these are risks that will continue to be evident even after the mitigating measures have been put in place. Governments will consider the magnitude of the residual risks prior to engaging in any form of risk management for individual programmes.
Once the above proposition has been duly established and worked out, it will be important that we move from the traditional focus on risk mitigation (which focuses on using controls to limit exposure to problems and is generally a reactive approach to risk management), to risk portfolio organization (which helps seize opportunities based on the risk appetite of Government and is generally a proactive approach to risk management).
Adherence to risk portfolio optimization will also ensure that risks at the program and policy levels are seen in a broader light and decisions to accept a given level of risks in a program can be seen as being proactive about maximizing opportunities for the greater developmental impact.