ILAN advances efforts to institute professional examination for new entrants

The Institute of Loss Adjusters of Nigeria (ILAN) has advanced efforts to institute professional examinations for new entries into the profession.

ILAN is collaborating with the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria to bring an end the protracted issue of disenfranchisement of student loss adjusters from sitting for professional examinations.

Reginald Egbuniwe, president, Institute of Loss Adjusters of Nigeria while briefing members at the 38th yearly meeting of the association in Lagos via webinar, said ILAN has been inundated with enquiries on the position of incoming and existing students of its former examinations.

“This is an issue which this council is giving the attention it deserves because a protracted situation can lead to disenchantment in the process which will not be in the interest of our members and the growth of the institute. Currently several of our members have been disenfranchised and are unable to write examinations for several years.

“While our books have been submitted earlier this year to the Chartered Insurance Institute, our papers are yet to be listed in the examination diet,” he disclosed.

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With these steps taken to get ILAN students back to the examination centres of CIIN, Egbuniwe points the members to a ray of hope that is still a long walk from the present position. “The Council is pleased to report that there is light at end of the tunnel as we have received positive indication that our examinations will be ready for certain categories of students by the second diet of next year.”

However, ILAN students taking part from the second diet looks unstable as there are still grey areas to be discussed, when a student loss adjuster should qualify for the foundation, intermediate and advanced certificates. The initial position was that upon qualifying as an associate of CIIN, the loss adjuster will then proceed to sit for loss adjusters only papers with advanced certificate in sight, receiving exemptions from the CIIN for the first two levels.

However, the point at which the loss adjuster will qualify for professional loss adjusting examination is an ongoing discussion with the Chartered Insurance Institute.

Another reason he adduced for the ongoing delay in listing subjects for loss adjusters “stems from the fact that introducing new literature requires a rigorous screening process and some of these are beyond the control of the CIIN

This notwithstanding, he said ILAN is hopeful that students who currently possess AIIN or CIIN qualifications, and wish to become qualified loss adjusters, will be able to sit our exams by October, 2021.

To get over this challenge one step at a time, he said additional work is being done on other category of students who have been advised to key into the AIIN program being offered by the CIIN, as this is the only way to associateship qualification.

Another development in the line of education is a specially designed and certified courses in collaboration with the University of Ibadan. “These modules were designed to equip our members for participation in oil and gas risks. The Covid-19 pandemic unfortunately caused necessary delays in the administration of the program and consequently the facilitators would have to redesign the entire program to accommodate the existing social distancing guidelines and we are hoping that our members will be able to take advantage of the revised offerings by next year,” he explained.