Fola Daniel’s tenure as commisioner for insurance extended

By admin on August 17, 2011

President Jonathan has renewed the tenure of Mr. Fola Daniel as Commissioner for Insurance for another term of four years beginning from August this year.

A tested underwriter and administrator with experience spanning over 30 years, Daniel, studied Insurance in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute, London and the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria as well as the British Institute of Management. He is also a visiting lecturer and a member of the Governing Board of the West African Insurance Institute, Banjul, The Gambia as well as the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria.

Daniel was first appointed Commissioner for Insurance in August 2007 and since coming on board, he has left no one in doubt as to the direction he is taking the industry.

He came at the peak of the crisis that engulfed the Nigerian Insurance Industry following the poor handling of the insurance industry recapitalization exercise. It was also at a time when NAICOM was at its lowest ebb.

The technical capacity was abysmally below internationally accepted regulatory indices, with core technical staff capacity of less than 20 to a proportion of 153 poorly trained auxiliary staff. This was further compounded with low staff morale owing to poor working condition/environment and poor remuneration. The internal schism amongst Management and Staff of the Commission culminated in the setting up of a Presidential Panel to review the Recapitalization Exercise and Management of the Commission as a whole.

Several litigations were also instituted against the Commission by major trade arms of the Insurance Industry. Some of the suits included the NIA Recapitalization suit and the NCRIB suit to name a few.

These problems, amongst others, rendered the Commission virtually incapable of discharging its regulatory oversight. This somewhat created a regulatory vacuum, pervasive poor corporate governance and management challenges in the insurance industry. This eventually culminated in a drop in the Industry’s contribution to the nation’s GDP. However, in the last four years, all of these have been addressed to the admiration of all stakeholders.

Before his appointment in 2007, he was managing director/CEO of Globe Reinsurance. Early in his career, he had a good time at Great Nigeria Insurance Company Limited. He worked in various capacities at the Senior Management level in the company. He was a Branch Manager and later Northern Area Manager of Great Nigeria in 1986.

In 1989, he joined Globe Reinsurance Plc as Underwriting Manager and rose to the position of Assistant General Manager (Technical) from where he was appointed by the Federal Government as Executive Director (Operations) of Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC) and later appointed the Managing Director/CEO of the Corporation in 1994.

The Corporation witnessed a phenomenal change in fortune from a loss position to a profit making organization. He returned to Globe Reinsurance Plc as Managing Director/CEO in 2004, a position he occupied till 2007 when he was appointed by the Federal