Eddie Efekoha
Group MD/CEO
CHI Plc

Consolidated Hallmark Insurance (CHI) Plc has renewed the Group Personal Accident Insurance cover worth N24 million sum assured for insurance journalists in the country.
This, according to the company, is part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project, to ensure that journalists who are exposed to danger and hazard in the discharge of their civic duties are adequately protected. The Group Personal Accident Insurance covers death, permanent disability and medical expenses.
The policy, now in its 9th years, has been running since 2012, and is renewed annually by the company. The cover was renewed in October, 2020 and it is due to expire in September 2021.
The policy covers all members of the National Association of Insurance and Pension Correspondents (NAIPCO) across the country while the company has promised to continue to renew the coverage for the journalists every year.
Reacting to this development, the Group Managing Director/CEO, CHI, Mr. Eddie Efekoha said this gesture is to show the kind of values and respect his insurance firm has for journalism, believing, journalists, who are the shapers of the society, and by extension, the insurance industry, must be well taken care of.
Journalism, he said, is a risky profession, hence, the need to adequately provide insurance for those covering the insurance industry.
In the case of the death of any of the concerned journalists, he said, the family of the deceased is entitled to N1 million death benefits. “A journalist who suffers permanent disability in the discharge of his duties will also be entitled to N1 million. The cover provides for medical expenses to the tune of N200, 000 per journalist in the case of an accident,” he pointed out.
Applauding the initiative, the Chairman, NAIPCO, Mr. Chuks Udo Okonta, said this is a rare gesture from CHI, as part of its CSR initiative aimed at impacting lives of IRS Immediate community.
He, on behalf of all members of the association, thanked the company as well as its GMD, Mr. Eddie Efekoha, for recognising the pivotal roles journalists are playing in the society and indeed insurance industry, promising that, this will serve as moral boosters for his members to continue to discharge their duties ethically and professionally with exhibiting any fear or intimidation.
He was particularly happy for the fact that in 2013, Mrs. Bimbo Oyetunde of Radio Nigeria received medical bill compensation from CHI after she was involved in a ghastly motor accident alongside other members of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) on their return from Abuja after an official assignment where three people died.
To him, ” Your company has lived up to expectation in the past when one of our members benefited from this policy and that, we are grateful for. Although, we don’t pray for hazard to happen, but we are relaxed that if the unexpected happens, CHI is always there for us.”

L-R: Mr Fatai Adegbenro, Executive Secretary, NCRIB; Mr. Rasaaq Salami, Head of Corporate Affairs, NAICOM; Sir Muftau Oyegunle, President of CIIN and Chairman of IICC; Mrs. Abimbola Omowunmi Tiamiyu, DG, CIIN; Mr. Gbenga Adebija, DG, Nigerian British Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Tunde Oguntade, Deputy President NCRIB at the Insurance Industry Consultative Council 2020 Media Retreat held at in Ijebu- Ode, Ogun State.

Mrs. Joyce Ojemudia
Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer
African Alliance Insurance Plc

African Alliance Insurance Plc has given detailed insight on how it paid claims of over N1.3 billion in October and November 2020 to deserving clients of the company.
Accordingly, the company said it has settled total claims of N1.3 billion from the 1st of October till date.
Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of African Alliance, Mrs. Joyce Ojemudia, who disclosed this during a courtesy visit of the executives of the National Association of Insurance and Pension Correspondents (NAIPCO) to the company in Lagos, noted that, the company is in business to settle claims.
Giving a breakdown of its claims history from October till date, the company said that it paid a total of N220.5 million as claims for group life insurance; for individual life including annuity, it paid N1.03 billion; for Esusu, it paid N2.3 million, while it paid N73.7 million as takaful claims.
Ojemudai said: “The products that we are selling in the insurance sector are intangible and the only way to make them tangible is to pay claims and pay promptly.”
According to her, insurance companies pay claims and it should be clear to the public that the sector exists to service their claims.
She said: “When you tell Nigerians to take up insurance, they always say that ‘God is my insurance’, but when we start sounding the message of claims payment very loud through the press, they will believe the press better.”
The African Alliance boss noted that the company is putting modalities in place to add more value to some of its products in the coming year, stating: “When some of these products were actually put in the market, Covid-19 was not around and nobody taught the impact of covid-19 will be as big as this. So as soon as we put some products in the proper perspective that will soothe 2021 business year, I am sure that we will start partnering with you to tell the public that we have products that will be of common interest to them.”
Also speaking, General Manager/Lead, Business Development, Mr. Steve Ajudua, said that there is potential of over a trillion naira income in the compulsory insurance products for the insurance industry and there is need for strict enforcement of that line of business.
He appealed to the media to assist the sector in propagating the benefits inherent in the compulsory insurance products, saying that it offers the industry a huge opportunity to increase insurance penetration as well as grow the economy.
In his introductory remark, the Chairman of NAIPCO, Mr. Chuks Okonta said that the maxim for the current EXCO is developmental journalism as it has taken up the mandate to add value to stakeholders in the insurance and pension sectors.
Okonta said: “We have taken up the mandate to add value to our shareholders in the sectors that we cover and as such, our assignment is developmental in scope.
“Accordingly, we have decided to carry out these assignments through claims profiling, where we reach out to companies to give us their claims history to project for them. Another aspect is through product profiling where we reach out to companies to give us products in their kitty and we propagate the message for them. While the third is management profiling where we expose the management team of companies to the public so that the public know where they are coming from.”
According to Okonta, other channels through which the association carry the message of insurance and pension to the general public is through its annual conference, the association magazine as well as the advert to news initiative where the association breakdown the message in adverts of companies to the understanding of the public.