The Chairman, Nigerian Insurers Association, Mr Tope Smart, who is also the Managing Director, NEM Insurance Plc, speaks with NIKE POPOOLA on the ongoing recapitalisation exercise of the insurance sector during the COVID-19 pandemic.The pandemic has affected the industry generally from two perspectives. Number one perspective is that insurance cannot operate in isolation. Since the economy is not expanding, that means insurance which is part of the larger economy will equally suffer from that.
When we thought about the angle through which we can support the Federal Government, we looked at our profession, and we discovered that as risk managers, we need to bring this to bear in the area of support, and then we decided to provide this cover, knowing full well that the frontline workers are doing a very fantastic job. The risk is very high, they are quite exposed and we need to motivate them because if they are not properly motivated, they can be discouraged.
For the corporate world, many of them equally are scaling down their expenses because their incomes too have equally come down. So, what many of them are doing is just to carry out the basic minimum. Many of them have cut down what naturally would have been their expenditure on maintenance, and definitely it will come back to the insurance industry.
Exactly. Even as I speak to you now, we have fixed our annual general meeting for some time in June and it is going to be virtual. And I know some other insurance companies that are quoted are going to adopt virtual annual general meetings because if you have to go by the social distancing rules, then it follows that you cannot get more than 20 people to gather for any event and then you have to do it virtually. So, that is one thing everybody is adopting.
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