SBG Insurance Brokers Limited (former subsidiary, Sterling Bank Plc) has instituted a N2.5 million ten-year tenured endowment fund for the best graduating insurance student in the University of Lagos (UNILAG). The SBG Insurance Brokers Prize for the Best Graduating Insurance Student is a scholarship for academic excellence in insurance.
The annual prize that is aimed at spurring insurance students to academic excellence will see the best graduating insurance student receiving N250, 000 every year for the next ten years. The purpose of the prize is to honor and recognize hard work and academic excellence and celebrate the sacrifices and dedication of the most outstanding insurance student from UNILAG.
“We expect that, by this Corporate Social Responsibility Project, SBG Insurance Brokers would be contributing to strengthening the quality of skilled personnel in the Nigerian insurance industry,” said Sammy Dalmeida, MD/CEO, SBG Insurance Brokers Limited, at the UNILAG council chamber stating that the brokerage firm expects recipients of the annual award will be the most hardworking student in their set and will be well deserving of the prize, having demonstrated academic excellence.
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Dalmeida states further that the high mortality rate of businesses in Nigeria underscores the significance of the endowment fund for SBG Insurance Brokers as an organization. He posits that business failure is a global phenomenon that is not only a Nigeria challenge. “In the US, global firms like WorldCom, Emron, Parmalat failed. According to available statistics, about 80 percent of businesses registered at Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission fail and die within their first five years of operation”.
The United Nations Industrial Development Organization’s Investment & Technology Promotion Office (UNIDO, ITPO), Nigeria, recently stated that studies show that only 20 percent of SMEs manage to survive. Some other statistics indicate that four out of every five businesses in Nigeria fail within the first three years of operation; that’s still a whopping 80 percent. Another study reports that only one out of 25 businesses that start in Nigeria survive after 10 years, which accounts for 96 percent. “Interestingly, the start-ups’ shutdown rate for Africa, at 54 percent, is much lower when compared to countries like the US, China, and India. However, despite what appears to be a mass failure of businesses, some businesses are surviving and doing very well,” he stated.
Dalmeida also used the opportunity to urge Nigerians and Nigerian businesses to embrace insurance. According to him, the recent collapse of a 21-story building on Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos raises the need for businesses to arrange appropriate insurances for their projects, assets, human resources and lives, employer’s liability, and general third-party liability risk exposures.
He posits that section 64 of the Insurance Act of 2003 requires that ‘Buildings in the Course of Construction’ are insured (Construction All Risks Insurance), while section 65 of the same Act requires that all “Public Buildings’ must be insured (Fire/Allied Perils Insurance). “It is important to note that whilst all the relevant laws exist, the enforcement of these Legal requirements has been a major challenge in Nigeria,” he stated.
