NAICOM Partners ECOWAS, EU to Set up Reinsurance Firm

Fola Daniel, Commissioner for Insurance, has said that the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), in partnership with the European Union (EU) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), have instituted plans to set up a regional Investment Guarantee and Re-Insurance firm in Nigeria.
The commissioner disclosed this in a statement in Lagos, when a five-man delegation of EU and ECOWAS visited him in his office.
Daniel explained that ‘There exists a gap in this line of business in the sub-region and we will be happy to provide the platform for this, adding that ‘the team should come up quickly with the risk profiling of the business and we will do all that is necessary to fast track the process.’
According to him, the scheme was to guarantee all investment across the ECOWAS sub-region against political risk, while the Re-insurance scheme would function like the conventional ones.
He said, ‘The investment guarantee scheme will operate with risk capital as against the prescriptive capital with which the regular insurance companies operate.’
Dr. Jonathan Aremu, a consultant with the ECOWAS Common Investment Market (ECIM), added in the statement that the project is currently being reviewed.
Aremu said the EU and ECOWAS are in partnership with the commission to ensure its success and pleaded for assistance from the regulatory and technical bodies on issues required to set up the institution.
He stressed that the delegation would come up with the pre-feasibility studies in the next two months or three months.
The statement added that when the feasibility studies were fully carried, the project headquarters would be located in Nigeria.