Ilori: Leveraging Courage, Passion To Impact Insurance Business

Yetunde Ilori is an insurance professional with almost four decades of experience in insurance market development, leadership development, advisory, mentorship and pastoral services.

Having retired as the managing director/CEO of AXA Mansard Insurance Plc, she became the director -general/CEO of the Nigerian Insurers NIA) from 2017 till date. She is however, expected to take up the mantle of leadership in Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) in a couple of weeks.

A key stakeholder and shareholder in insurance industry value chain, Yetunde, has a broad Insurance markets leadership experience spanning Life Assurance and Market/Price Risk management.

Making Impacts

One of her impact in insurance industry was to spearhead the building of a skyscraper as the head office of NIA, a legacy she said, was achieved by a dint of hard-work and many sacrifices.

“When I resumed at NIA, we were in the old building where I was always having monthly meetings. I saw that beyond what w had, there was possibility to turn things around. With the support of the council, with the support of the companies, this happened. And from a story building, we now have a befitting six-storey building; that is the pride of the entire insurance industry, not just NIA,” she said.

She is also instrumental to upgrading a platform where Nigerians can now confirm the authenticity of their motor insurance policy, thereby, checkmating fake insurance policies that flooded the market prior to now.

The innovation, known as Nigeria Insurance Industry Database (NIID), she said, have ensured that policy sales that were manually done before are now digitally done.

To her, “For example, we have the trade Portal through which banks can ascertain that marine certificates that people are carrying are genuine. Before, when a customer in the banking hall presents a paper, they need to put a call across and say is this certificate issued by you? But that’s no longer the case. Everything is uploaded onto their own trade Portal being managed by the Central Bank, and you can confirm the genuineness of the certificate that any customer is carrying.

“We moved on from there to have the USSD code, working with NIBSS, to say people can verify the genuineness of the policy, and from there we moved on to the Nigeria Insurance Industry Database (NIID). That becomes like a central thing that all enforcement agents are now using to ascertain the genuineness of the cover that people present to them. It started with motor, but it is not just motor that is there now, later, marine came on board. Now, we have Occupiers Liability, builders, liability insurances.”

She said, NIA, under her watch, is now working with the National Pension Commission (PenCom) to enable them ascertain the genuineness of cover presented to them in respect of group life.

Similarly, the Nigeria Insurance Industry Portal (NIIP) came onboard the insurance industry in 2021, courtesy of the doggedness of Ilori.

“NIIP is like an offshoot of the Nigerian Insurance Industry Database (NIID). The first time that this came to being or that it actually became real and functional was year 2021, and that one is still running now. And how is this running? We want insurance to be accessible. Not just accessible, we want it to be easily accessible by anybody. Sometimes when you’re talking about people buying insurance, the question comes, where do I buy? So we see in motor insurance that fake insurances were thriving just because people didn’t know where to get the authentic ones.

“So, we felt we need to provide the public with easily accessible and secured platform, and for them to do it in the right way. Because insurance companies are set up to pay claims, and when you don’t go to the genuine source, you are carrying fake, there’s no way you enjoy the service. So, we want them to have this security. We want them to enjoy the benefits,” she stressed.

Improved Capacity of Nigerian Insurers

Expressing her impact at rescaling insurance industry operations, he said, insurance companies now have more capacity to absorb bigger risks unlike when he came onboard as the DG of NIA in 2017.

“The Nigerian insurance companies paid N669.4bn claims in 2023. Yes, insurance industry has the ability to carry any risk, and this is because, the way insurance works, at a time, we saw claims payments as a major issue. And for that reason in the course of my working at NIA, we had to expel three companies that were not measuring up, and not responding or meeting their obligations. We expelled them and, later the regulator withdrew the licences of two of them; but you will appreciate that it was NIA that first of all, even expelled them.

“We also intervene in helping some people to resolve issues among our members, and so, claims figure rose, and we are beginning to earn the trust of the public. Apart from the advert that we placed, asking people to come up with a claim, we had personality shows where we’re asking people to call and report claims that were not being settled. We still need the public to believe in this process and believe it’s achievable,” she pointed out.

Advice For Professional Women and Entrepreneurs

Recounting her ordeal in a male-dominated insurance industry, she said, she had to do twice what the men were doing to excel or else, her hard-work wouldn’t be noticed.

She urged upcoming women who want to be a bigger player in insurance industry or other spheres of life to always strive harder, be hardworking, consistent in what they do, be professional, and be positive and above all, be Godly to reach the echelon of their callings and endeavours

Biography

Mrs. Yetunde Ilori is a 1984 graduate of Actuarial Science from University of Lagos(UNILAG), an Associate of Chartered Insurance Institute of London, Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria(CIIN) and an Alumnus of the Lagos Business School.

Yetunde started her insurance career in 1985 with the erstwhile Trans Nigeria Insurance Co. Ltd Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria where she rose to become the head of Life & Pensions Department and Claims Dept. In 1997, she joined Crusader Insurance Plc. as the head of Actuarial, Research. and Statistics Department. She later became the head of Life Dept. of the Company.

Yetunde joined Axa Mansard Insurance Plc. (formerly Guaranty Trust Assurance Plc.) in year 2004 and she was the Chief Executive Officer till July 2017.

She later became the Director General/CEO of Nigerian Insurers Association(NIA) (Umbrella Body of All Insurance and Reinsurance Companies) in August, 2017.

She was the chairperson of the Life Offices Committee for many years (2005 – 2012), she is a member of the Governing Council of Nigerian Insurers Association(NIA) as well as that of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria(CIIN). Yetunde currently serves on the Board of the College of Insurance & Financial Management. She is also the chairperson of the Life Committee of African Insurance Organization (AIO).

In the next couple of weeks, she is expected to be invested as the new president of CIIN.