After leading a delegate of insurance professionals to an International Executive Program in the United States, the President of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), Mr. Eddie Efekoha, has called on insurance firms to consider running a paperless organization for effective and efficient service to the insuring public.
Efekoha, who spoke with reporters in Lagos, said he led a delegation of chief executive officers and some directors to Houston, Texas being a major insurance market in the United States few weeks ago to acquire knowledge.
He explained that the institute had in the past visited countries that had a more advanced insurance market than Nigeria under an exchange program. He said they decided to change the name of the exchange program to International Executive Program because there has never been an exchange, rather they go to the countries to gather knowledge.
He stated that this year, they had presentations and visitations to insurance firms in Houston. He disclosed that the structure of Houston market is a little different, but developed and advanced, noting that technology is advance in terms that they use it to drive the business.
He said: “We decide to go to Houston being a major insurance market in the US and also the centre for oil insurance, knowing that a lot of oil activities take place in Houston. We undertook the trip on two grounds. One is that as an institute, we are in for knowledge acquisition or capacity building. Many of us learn by listening to lecture, through reading or by observation because when you get so senior, the strength is not as when you were young.
“We visited companies that are paperless in Houston insurance market and in fact, since we came back with that mindset, we are looking at changing things. When you see somebody in Nigeria with just a laptop, an ipad and his phone, you ask why. But over there a staff has more than three monitors that he can work on and with this they are able to carry out an efficient system. We learnt other couple of things that they do, as well. The takeaways for us will vary with individuals, but it has broadened us and our network”, he noted.