Tony Elumelu Tells Why NAICOM Needs To Make Insurance Attractive To Youth

Extraordinary entrepreneur, Tony Elumelu has disclosed major reasons industry regulator National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and related stakeholders need to make insurance attractive to young people.

“We need a younger and more agile workforce. We have so many young people, but the insurance sector is not attractive to them” one of Africa’s leading investors and philanthropists asserted.

The power behind the success story of game-changing businesses including Heirs Insurance Group explained that “They have the energy, ideas, and the creativity to take the industry to the next level. See what has happened in the banking, telco, creative sectors of our economy. These can also be replicated in the in the insurance sector.”

Elumelu made the submission as the theme Speaker at the 2023 NAICOM National Insurance Conference.

The proposal is part of the solutions he provided to transform the Insurance Industry from what he described as “embarrassing less than 2% insurance penetration, in a nation of over 200 million people, struggling to survive, amidst the harshest economic realities”

The chairman – and founder – of family owned investment company, committed to improving lives and transforming Africa – Heirs Holdings, asserted that insurance sector practitioners must act in a way and manner that makes the profession “one that people aspire to become a part of”.

“I chose my career in banking largely because of the professionals I saw in banking when I was growing up and I aspired to be like one of them.” the Chairman of pan- African financial services group, the United Bank for Africa (UBA), which operates in 20 countries across Africa, the United Kingdom, France, the UAE, and is the only African bank with a commercial deposit taking presence in the United States shared a personal experience to emphasize his point while insisting “It is time to refresh the workforce mix in this sector (Insurance)”.

The prominent champion of entrepreneurship in Africa, through the Tony Elumelu Foundation, further advocated that “NAICOM should allow brilliant minds to come into the insurance sector and limit years of experience only to technical areas.” adding that ” Let us open the insurance sector in Nigeria to our young and innovative minds. With the right enabling environment, we will see the transformation of the Nigerian insurance sector.”

The chairman of one of Nigeria’s largest quoted conglomerate, Transcorp, whose subsidiaries include Transcorp Power, one of the leading producers of electricity in Nigeria and Transcorp Hotels Plc, Nigeria’s foremost hospitality brand spoke on the topic ” Redefining Safety: Insurance Solutions for Public Buildings and Buildings under Construction” .

The 2023 NAICOM National Insurance Conference which started on October 22, 2023 at the Abuja Continental Hotel ends on October 24, 2023.

Elumelu made his presentation on Monday, October 23, 2023.