Matthew Otoijagha
The Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers of Nigeria (NCRIB) has applauded the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) over the zero draft guidelines issues to broking firms in the country.
The President, Shola Tinubu, who said this at a media parley held in Lagos, stated that the opportunity provided by the regulator for brokers to make input to the Zero draft Guideline, help enrich it.
“The guidelines are currently being reviewed by the Technical and Legal Committees of the NCRIB for our final input. We believe that if our suggestions and input are favorably considered, the Commission will definitely come out with a more robust and acceptable document for all stakeholders.
“Currently we are concerned that the guideline may be seeking to Tier Brokers which is not seen as required since Brokers are professional firms and not risk carriers. However we have confidence in the approach of the commission to ensure all aspects are fully discussed before decisions are made.”
NAICOM had in June 2018 in the draft guidelines proposed N5 million and N3 million licensing fees for insurance broking business in the country, as against the present fee of N2.5 million. The draft guideline also stated that in the proposed regime, brokers would operate 2-tier mode – Corporate and Partnership.
According to the commission, investors seeking Corporate licenses have to pay nonrefundable application fee of N500,000 and those for Partnership licenses N300,000, adding that every insurance broker shall upon successful conclusion of the registration process, but prior to issuance of a licenses, pay a licensing fee of N4.5 million for Corporate and N2.7 million, which together with the application fee amounts to N5 million and N3 million.
NAICOM also noted that every insurance broker shall pay bi-annual license renewal fees of N1 million for Corporate and N600,000 for Partnership, adding that Corporate brokers would maintain a professional indemnity cover of not less than N10 million, which is N100 million in the case of oil and gas insurance brokerage or 50 per centum of its annual brokerage income for the preceding year, whichever is the greater.
On the other hand, the partnership operators will require a professional indemnity cover of not less than N5 million, which is N50 million in case of oil and gas insurance brokerage or 50 per cent of its annual brokerage income for the preceding year, whichever is the greater.