Nigerian emerges chair of West Africa insurance body

Past Chairman of the Nigerian Insurers Association and Group Managing Director of Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc, Mr Eddie Efekoha, will become the next president of the West African Insurance Companies Association president of WAICA for the next one year.

The Chairman of the Local Organising Committee and Deputy Chairman of the NIA, Mrs Bola Odukale, disclosed this.

In a statement from the NIA as it commenced the 50th anniversary of WAICA on Sunday with an elaborate ceremony, it said the ceremony would feature awards to past presidents and others who had contributed to the growth of the subregional body over the years.

In the programme of the conference released by the LOC chairman, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, would declare the conference open. The Group Managing Director of Africa Reinsurance Corporation, Mr Corneille Karekezi, would chair the first session which would feature the paper on, ‘International rating agencies and their impact on the operations of Insurance companies’.

The paper would be presented by the Director of Analytics, A.M. Best, a UK-based rating agency, Mr Tim Prince.

The second paper on, ‘Creating value, finding focus: The fulcrum of international rating on insurance business’, would be presented by the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Cornerstone Insurance Plc, Mr Ganiyu Musa. Musa is the immediate past chairman of the NIA.

It stated that the second day of the conference would start with the paper on, ‘Positioning insurance companies in West Africa for transnational competitiveness: The likely pitfalls’, and would be presented by Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Enterprise Life, Ghana, Madame Benyi; while the Regional Executive, Anglophone West Africa, Ecobank Group, Accra, Ghana, Mr Daniel Sackey, would present another paper on the same topic but from the banking perspective.

This session would be chaired by the Commissioner for Insurance, Sierra Leone, Mr Arthur Yaskey.

Odukale said, “The fact that Nigeria is hosting this year’s 50th anniversary and education conference is yet another opportunity for Nigeria to showcase her hospitality. It gives us a unique opportunity to showcase Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage.”