Avoid Dealing With Unlicensed Brokers, Agents, NAICOM Cautions Insurers

The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) at the weekend warned insurance operators against dealing with unlicensed brokers and agents to facilitate insurance businesses. Mrs Ebelechukwu Nwachukwu, Chairman, Sub-Committee on Publicity of the Insurers Committee, said this while briefing newsmen on the outcome of the committee’s meeting in Lagos. Nwachukwu, also Managing Director of Royal Exchange General Insurance, stated that NAICOM observed the practice during the ongoing Risk Based Supervision (RBS) in some insurance companies. “The regulator spoke to us very strongly, to ensure that all the agents and brokers we deal with are licensed up-to-date or renewed, as against doing business with brokers with expired licences or unregistered agents,” she said. According to her, NAICOM also recommended self regulation to underwriters, regarding RBS. The sub-committee chairman disclosed that NAICOM directed that boards of the various underwriting firms should approve and implement whistle blowing policy in their respective companies. Nwachukwu said the committee also agreed on the need for the insurance industry to increase awareness on annuity and continue to build trust to ensure that the product line grows significantly. “With the amount of fund in the pension industry, we should expect a lot of that to be downloaded into the insurance industry through annuity,” she said. The sub-committee chairman revealed that NAICOM also expressed concern over the backlog of unpaid claims and charged the defaulting insurers to settle all outstanding claims as soon as possible. She said that the committee resolved that the unpaid claims should be publicised on the platform of the Nigeria Insurers Association (NIA) for first three months to encourage those with lodged claims to come for it. “After the three months and we see that the impact is still outstanding, companies may be mandated to do own publicity. “A lot of unpaid claims have been reported, but supporting documents were not provided, and as such they remain as outstanding claims for so many years,” she said. According to her, the insurance operators further discussed the need for NAICOM to continue to engage the National Assembly to ensure the passage of Consolidated Insurance Bill. Nwachukwu noted that insurers had also begun the process of harmonising the ECOWAS Brown Card to ensure that the same certificate is issued across all countries using the brown card. She said the insurers also took a presentation from KPMG, as part of its planning for the insurance industry’s 10 years Transformation Roadmap. According to the managing director, eight pillars were proposed to the insurance industry as part of the roadmap, which include: continuous improvement of the regulatory environment. Nwachukwu said as part of the proposal, Risk Based pricing and Risk Based capital would become paramount. She stated that increased awareness and improvement in market conduct and ethics was proposed as part of the transformational roadmap to the future that the industry desires. The sub-committee chairman said that the presentation also suggested more partnership with non-insurers players, just as it is done in the banking industry. She stated that the insurers were charged on digitalization and improvement of talents pool of the insurance sector and supporting national economic growth plan.

Pension Assets Hit N16.7trn – PENCOM

The National Pension Commission (PenCOM) says its Pension Asset Under Management so far stands at an impressive N16.76 trillion.The Director General of the commission, Mrs Aisha Dahir-Umar, said this at a one-day sensitisation programme to educate the Organised Private Sector (OPS) on the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).The event was organised in collaboration with the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA) in Port Harcourt.Dahir-Umar said that the figure was an indication that the scheme had operated satisfactorily and effectively since its inception.She said that the sensitisation programme was to provide a platform for the stakeholders to deliberate on the current developments and challenges encountered in the implementation of the Pension Reform Act (PRA 2014) for OPS.The PenCOM boss, represented by the Head, Compliance and Enforcement Department of PenCom, Mr Bala Babangida, said that over 10 million employees had so far registered in the scheme since the implementation of the Act.According to her, at the end of the third quarter of 2023, the number of Retirement Savings Accounts (RSA) under the CPS stood at 10 million and the Pension Asset Under Management amounted to N16.76 trillion.“The 10 million plus is the registration count from the beginning of 2004, when the Act became effective.“We have in our registration database no fewer than 10 million registered RSA holders.She said that the N16.76 trillion was the pension assets that were being managed for the benefit of all retirement savings account holders.According to him, when they retire, they will get their benefits as and when due,” she said.She further said that the commission specifically deployed the Enhanced Contributors Registration System (ECRS) for the pension industry.She said that the commission, following the deployment of the ECRS, introduced the Data Recapture Exercise (DRE).She said that the DRE “mandatorily requires all RSA holders, who joined the CPS, prior to July 1, 2019, to update their information with their respective Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs).She said that the commission was saddled with the responsibility of supervising the transfer of the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) contributions of employees into their respective RSA under the CPS.She said that contributions worth N10.20 billion had been transferred to the RSAs of 142,486 NSITF scheme contributors to date.Dahir-Umar commended NECA for offering its platform for continuous social dialogue with the members of the OPS on the implementation of the CPS.She gave assurance that the commission would always support NECA to champion programmes that would help to ensure the successful implementation of the CPS in Nigeria.She advised employers of labour to encourage their employees, who have contributed to the NSITF scheme, to liaise with their PFAs, particularly Trustfund Pensions, for guidance on how to have their contributions transferred to their RSAs.In a speech, the Director-General of NECA, Mr Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, said that the agency, as an umbrella body of all employers of labour in the country, had at least 4,000 employers.Oyerinde was represented at the event by Mr Godfrey Agorom, the Chairman of NECA, Port Harcourt Geographical Group, comprising Rivers and Bayelsa States, who is also the OPS Chairman.He said that the private sector remained committed to the success of the pension scheme as long as its concerns were not only noted but addressed expeditiously.He said that the interactive session was organised to sensitise both the employees and employers on the overview of the CPS; compliance with the provisions of the PRA; investment of pension assets and current developments in the pension industry.He said that many employers did not know how to go about the retirement savings of their workers.“The current percentage is that the employee pays eight per cent of his monthly salary and the employer pays 10 per cent of the employees’ monthly salary.“In a month, the employee has 18 per cent of your salary set aside paid to your pension administrators, which they invest for money flow, at retirement, you have fund accumulated for you to withdraw,” Onyerinde said.

Police bust bank account hacking syndicate, arrest 2

The Zone 2 Command of the Nigeria Police has cracked down a syndicate that specialises in hacking into bank customers’ accounts and arrested two suspects. The Zonal Public Relations Officer, SP Hauwa Idris-Adamu, confirmed the arrest in a statement on Tuesday in Lagos. Idris-Adamu said that the arrest followed a petition received from a bank by the Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) in charge of the Zone comprising Lagos and Ogun, Mr Mohammed Ali. “On the 8th of May 2023, a petition was submitted by United Bank for Africa (UBA) to the AIG that there are some syndicates that specialise on internet fraud of various banks in Nigeria, most especially United Bank for Africa (UBA). “They hack into customers accounts and move their money. “Based on the petition, the AIG raised a team of detectives from the Zonal Monitoring Unit, which swung into action with the aid of modern technology. “The two suspects were tracked down at their hideout at Ijebu Ode, Ogun State,” she said. According to the official, the suspects confessed to the crime. “They confessed that they had many syndicates all over Nigeria and that they used software to hack into customers’ accounts and move their money undetected from any bank. “The modus operandi of these fraudsters is to have a customer’s BVN-linked phone number for easy transfer of money. “Consequently, over 1,000 customers’ accounts have been hacked and the customers defrauded across the country,” she said. She said that further investigation into the incident revealed that members of the syndicates were from different parts of the country. She said that efforts were being intensified to arrest all those connected with the crime. According to her, investigation is  ongoing while the suspects will be arraigned on completion of investigation.