NAICOM begins human development in varsities to improve insurance education, penetration

The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has commenced capacity building in universities across the six geo-political zones of the country to improve insurance education and facilitate penetration in schools. Mr Sunday Thomas, the Commissioner for Insurance, said this in Abuja on Thursday at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of Uyo. The commissioner said that the move was to educate more people on insurance and its policies. Thomas said that the Commission had visited some universities and polytechnics in the North-East, North-West, North-Central, South East, South-West and South-South to assist the schools insurance department financially. He said the Commission was currently assisting and building capacities of people in the insurance departments of six universities across the zones.

According to him, the assistance is applied to support tertiary institutions in the areas of construction of administrative and vocational offices and sponsorship of insurance department accreditation. Others are the establishment of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Centre, scholarship for Masters and Doctorate degrees, provision of text books and journals on insurance and sponsorship of professorial endowment. Thomas said that institutions offering insurance and actuarial science at degree or National Diploma levels, owned by federal and state governments and had existing infrastructure, staff and department with insurance education were considered.

“The value is the linkage that is created in human capital development which cannot be quantified. This is a knowledge based sector, we realised that as the days go by, vulnerability increases and in which case, we need to develop products that will meet the needs of the populace and we need creative ideas. We need those who are cerebral to be able to reach out there and package products and of course the starting point is to get the knowledge,” he said. Earlier, Prof. Nyaudoh Ndaeyo, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Uyo, commended NAICOM for the kind gesture, saying it would boost insurance programme in the university. Ndaeyo said the construction of classroom blocks and offices in the university would aid easy learning process.

“They have also trained our staff and the coming of the building will provide offices for staff and classrooms for us. We will ensure that we maintain the quality,” he said. NAICOM had financially assisted no fewer than 10 universities between 2013 and 2020 to promote insurance education. (NAN)