The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has released the Prudential and Market Conduct Guidelines to drive growth in the insurance industry.

The Vice-Chairman, Publicity and Communications Sub-Committee, Insurers Committee, Mr. Segun Omosehin, made the disclosure while briefing journalists on the outcome of the Insurers Committee meeting which took place in Lagos yesterday.

Although the details of the guidelines were not made known to journalists but Omosehin said the Guideline was released on Wednesday, August 31, 2022 in Abuja by NAICOM.

Insurers Committee consists of all Chief executive officers of insurance companies and the regulator National Insurance Commission (NAICOM).

Other issues discussed during the meeting, according to Omosehin, include the collaboration between the NAICOM and the Nigerian Local Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB) on how the insurance industry can take full advantage of the local content initiative.

This initiative, according to Omosehin, is meant to enhance compliance of operators to the requirement of the Local Content Act such that operators would not be able to circumvent insurance that are meant to be taken locally and take them abroad or use some other means to take them overseas.

He said the initiative is being midwived by the two regulators (NCDMB and NAICOM).

The Nigeria Local Content Act was signed into Law on April 22, 2010, by the then Acting President, Goodluck Jonathan. The Act was designed to increase the participation of Nigerian ventures and the workforce in the oil sector.

The Local Content Act empowers Nigerian Companies to contribute tremendously toward the development of the Nigerian economy by encouraging value addition, job opportunities, and furthermore the award of different oil contracts and undertakings to the Nigerian indigenous companies.

Although Omosehin said the initiative is still in the works to fine-tune it, added that a lot still needs to be done.

“We were just giving idea on what the initiative would look like; we were taken through what the end process should be but there is still a lot more work to be concluded before it is finally released,”

He also informed the journalist the revised guidelines on Bancassurance will soon be released.

The guidelines were reviewed based on the issues raised in the market by the operators.

“The operators had, prior to now, made some inputs that they will love to see in the guidelines. So we are hoping that some of those things perhaps would have been taken into cognizance in the new one. So we are waiting for it earnestly,” Omosehin said.