By Nike Popoola

The insurance industry in West Africa requires a high level of technical support to handle emerging risks, particularly in the oil and aviation sectors.

The Commissioner for Insurance, Mr. Fola Daniel, said this during the West African Insurance Companies’ Association’s educational conference in Lagos on Monday.

He said that it was important that firms constituting WAICO’s Reinsurance Corporation should be adequately capitalised and directed by an informed board and management.

Daniel also commended the efforts of the West African insurers to jointly build capacity in the region.

He said, “Deliberately weighted selection criteria, particularly for the management team, based on maturity, experience, qualification and goodwill, will be helpful, in addition to a sizeable capitalisation beyond the statutory minimum requirement.”

He added that the new corporation must seek for a responsive and competent technical partner to help in the rapid development of technical competence within the corporation and the entire industry in the sub-region.

He said that this was necessary because the new corporation was coming into an intensely competitive environment.

According to him, the reinsurance company, which the insurers planned to inaugurate today(Tuesday), will help to augment the insurance pool already available in the region.

Daniel said that the benefits accruable to the insurance industry in the sub-region with the establishment of WAICA’s Reinsurance Corporation Plc, were immense.

With adequate take-off capital, he said that the corporation would contribute a higher level of capacity to insurance companies in the sub-region.

He noted that this was part of efforts to enhance the capacity contribution of member countries.

Source: Punch