Gbadebo Olamerun is the vice president of the Pan Africa Insurance Agents Associations (PIAA). He was elected at the conference of the organization in Kenya last month.
A property developer and insurance expert, Olamerun believes that Nigerians lack proper knowledge of the opportunities in the insurance industry.
In this chat with newsmen, he speaks on the roles the insurance industry played during the EndSARS protest, the COVID-19 pandemic and the general harsh business environment in the country.
What are your business concepts?
Basically, Gafford is a property and development organisation. We are in property business as a result of a shortfall and to provide solution to Nigeria’s housing deficit. It’s interesting to see how the major dream of a fresh Nigerian graduate across the spectrum of Nigeria is to build a house.
How affordable are your houses?
In the context of the reality, whatever is the class you play in, Gafford is ready to provide affordable properties. For the middle class, there are affordable properties for them. For the people below the middle class, there are affordable properties for them. For the high class, there are affordable properties for them. The only class of business we don’t go for is highly exclusive business for now. What do I mean by highly exclusive business? Investing hundreds of millions of dollars into a property, you must be 100 per cent well. For now, it’s not in our plan.
What are your challenges as an organization?
So far, we’ve been able to surmount some of the challenges, but it’s been rewarding knowing we provide value for Nigerians.
How do you manage the major obstacles – high cost of building materials, decreasing value of the naira – to building?
It’s a major concern for the entire sector of the economy. The price of building materials is on a daily basis increasing. Whatever we bought 1 hour ago, there’s every tendency that it will change. It has made it very difficult for us to plan, project and do analysis.
How easy is it to do business in Lagos?
It’s getting better. Lagos is sitting on a trajectory of value. Whatever it is you put on the table and it’s well articulated, you will always find a place. Generally, according to the United Nations, doing business in Nigeria is quite demanding. It can get better, but we don’t want to sit on the narrative that things are bad and wait for heavens to fall. One major constraint is the cost of materials; the cost of manpower used to be marginal, but now it’s unbelievably high. The labour market is saturated now. Many people were relieved of their jobs post-COVID.The demand for what you have is very challenging if you’re not holding it very well. As an employer of labour, what we do is hire and fire at every point in time to be able to assess the right guys. It’s interesting, but we are committed to all the values that the economy is pushing back to us.
You also have an interest in insurance. Why should the ordinary man believe in the insurance industry?
In other climes where things work properly, the insurance industry is the backbone that guarantees the livelihood of individuals, government and industries. There is something to fall back on. I mean life is about ups and downs. It’s never been up all through or down all through, except there’s a spiritual undertone. The insurance industry brings a lot of succour and reduces the wastages we all have as a country. Unfortunately, the insurance industry has a penetration of less than two per cent in Nigeria. The most interesting part of it is that the insurance is owned and driven by practitioners in Nigeria, just as the way it is in other climes. And in the same regard, insurance practitioners own major stakes in other financial institutions. Unfortanately, the reverse is the case here. Players in the banking industry are gradually taking over major stakes in the insurance industry. We practitioners in the insurance industry need to put up more than our A game to take our rightful position. I can imagine I have a child.He’s just three years old. And I’m sure at the back of my mind that when he’s 19 or 21, when he gets to university, his education is guaranteed. Insurance industry brings a lot of equity in that trajectory. Unlike I’m saving, if I’m unable to save when my child is 21, my child is on his own.
Why is the insurance industry not trusted by most Nigerians?
The insurance industry has a lot of work to do. We do have a lot of work to do and gradually, the narrative is changing. You will be shocked that the industry paid whopping hundreds of millions of dollars for the EndSARS destruction. You’ll also be shocked that the insurance industry came together as a brand to support the Federal Government during the COVID exercise. Glad to say that over the years, the insurance has always provided services. Service is not taking us nowhere. Presently, with the crop of leaders the industry has, the industry is providing solutions. So, I’m not just waiting for your car to have an accident for me to give you cover. I’m also thinking that as you are from university, I have a finance organisation that can help you get a car and insure it and you spread the payment overtime. My dad was telling me that when he left school, there were organisations wooing him to work with them. In fact, he said he was in a dilemma as to which organisation to pick. We don’t enjoy such privileges again today. The insurance industry is bringing that on the value. You want to build a house, we are not waiting for you to buy so we can insure; we are partnering with you to provide succour and partnership to buy the house while we insure it. I’m glad the industry is taking a giant stride to demystify what has been the challenge.
How many of these things are practicable?
Absolutely practicable. I don’t want to mention any brand. But a good number of insurance firms are doing valuable numbers. The insurance industry has understood that paying claims as and when due is vital for the enhancement of the industry. For the President, Mohammadu Buhari to heartily congratulate the insurance industry for the role it played during EndSARS and COVID shows the unprecedented success the industry has achieved.
Tell us the specific roles the insurance industry played during EndSARS?
A lot of buildings and cars burnt in contest were not insured. Some of them that were insured were not inclusive of exclusions that happen to them. If you insure your car, war is an exclusion. If you want car to be incorporated into your policy, you buy that exclusion into your policy. If you want riot (it’s another exclusion) to be included, you buy it. If, ab initio, you bought an all in all policy, you’re covered.The industry came under one caveat, which is ex-gratia law and put funds together to indemnify all of those challenged. So, whether you’re due for claim or not, we got them indemnified once they’re insured.
What is the greatest challenge to the insurance industry in Nigeria?
Knowledge gap. There is a tradition that we Nigerians feel Jesus and Mohammed are their insurance. It’s true that Jesus and Mohammed are our insurance, but the needful should be done. If my car is worth N20,000 and then it is important to have a plan B. That plan B is insurance. I want to sincerely appreciate the government of President Buhari. He has to a certain level been cooperative.
How has Buhari assisted the insurance industry?
As a president, your body language says a lot. I will give you an example. We’ve had a consultative forum for four years and I just came back from Kenya. The whole insurance industry in Africa was in Kenya. The president wasn’t there, but he sent his representative but in Nigeria, he came in person.
Looking at the economy, a number of indices have gone South. Would you say we are better off?
The indices are clear and I’m not here to challenge them. Business since 2015 has been extremely challenging. The number one problem is insecurity. The insecurity problem has driven the entire economy to its knees. It’s a big shame that the convoy of the number citizen was attacked. That’s the height of it. I was analysing the economy a couple of days ago. The numbers are not smiling. The arrows in almost all sectors are going down seriously speaking. It’s a pain that is absolutely unbearable. Education, aviation, telecommunications, name the sector. The economy is under severe pressure. The Nigerian economy is really challenged.
What are your takeaways from the AIO event in Kenya?
It’s the gathering of the entire of insurance industry in Africa. It’s the one single largest organisation in Africa that has all the major players of the insurance industry collectively. The event happens once in a year, where each country that’s a member country hosts other members. We deliberate and provide policies and initiatives to empower the industry and further increase the penetration in Africa. The African Insurance Organisation has been in existence in 1976. We’ve celebrated our of 50 years of existence. And I’m privileged alongside four other African countries –Kenya, South Africa, Burundi and Mozambique, that came together to push this narrative to the AIO at the general assembly that the Pan-African Insurance Agency Organisation should be incorporated as a full member of the AIO. Before now, it used to be AIO. AIO comprises the underwriting firm, the reinsurance firms, the brokers, the acturians. Now the insurance agents have been incorporated into the AIO. It’s first of its kind. And I’m privileged to be elected the vice president of the Pan-African Insurance Agency Organisation.
What do you intend to do for your country with that position?
First and foremost, it’s a continental assignment. It’s not a Nigerian assignment. Our primary motive is to increase the penetration of insurance in Africa. The same narrative that is affecting Nigeria with two per cent penetration is also almost the same for some African countries within the same trajectory. Several other Africa countries are within the same trajectory.We have just three of four countries that have above three per cent penetration. We are also saddled with the responsibility of increasing the penetration of insurance in Africa. We are also to coordinate a level of professionalism and education of our members. We are saddled with the responsibility of negotiating with states, countries and regions to see how role of insurance can be deepened. Myself and the president have scheduled for several meetings across Africa. The president is from Kenya. The vice president is from Nigeria. The secretary general is from South Africa.
Can you tell us a little about your foundation?
I run a foundation called New Narrative Foundation. The foundation, as the name implies, is to put a stop to allowing just anyone pilot the affairs of Nigeria. For us as an organisation, we are beginning to empower and educate educated Nigerians. What’s our definition of educated Nigerians? For us, if you’re an NCE holder, OND, HND BSc, MSC in any field of endeavour, you’re an educated Nigerian. We’re building clusters here and there to make sure we all get our PVCs, begin to educate on the electoral value that the Nigerian economy brings on the table; begin to empower the youth on the real coloration of the future, the trajectory of $5,000, $2,000 won’t take us anywhere. In our context, we are not so concerned about the local government. We are thinking of fighting it right from the top. Who should be the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? Does he have the wherewithal to manage resources? What does his body language say? Does the person have the integrity to govern us? Can he provide the least of the least -good roads, electricity, hospitality. It’s crazy that whenever any of our highly placed guys here has malaria, the next thing to do is to travel abroad. We are looking at who has that track record? Who has the capacity to provide succour for Nigerians? It’s crazy to say that any country you travel to, Nigerians lead majority of the sectors in that country. Name it – United States, UK, even Russia that are fighting war. Check all the major stakeholders in those countries, they’re Nigerians.We need that leader that can give us an ambience of security, hope and prosperity.
Do you think we currently have any leader that can take us there?
My ideology in life is to live every day per time. You don’t live tomorrow ahead of today.There are people that are equitably competent to drive and rule Nigeria as a country. Mind you, we are not looking at 2023. We are looking at the next 12 years. We are taking our time to train and attract the A class of citizens that understand what we are doing and begin to gradually push the narrative and see how to deliver Nigerian economy into the hands of those that can take us to the Promised Land. The frontrunners at the helm of affairs, if we give them the right orientation, they will be forced to begin to work alongside what is expected of Nigeria. If our political and social platforms can say, if our president cannot fix electricity in nine months, he should resign…
We did EndSARS. It ended disastrously?
EndSARS was a profound ideology that was hijacked. It was hijacked days before soldiers came. We never burnt any house.We never burnt any car. We never fought. I was in the middle of it. We all use our teeth to count our tongue. We know who hijacked it. So, it’s a movement that will come without so much of agitations, confrontations, shutting down the economy on the pretext that we want things done.
No matter what Russian and Ukraine do, they are still going to dialogue. We have engaged professional lobbyists. We know how to manoeuvre our ways and tie the hands of government to deliver on what we want them to do.