Abimbola Onakomaiya is an insurance professional par excellence whose career spans underwriting, claims administration, business development, risk management and reinsurance.
Abimbola’s career started as an Associate, Hill Samuel Life Investment Services, Wales, United Kingdom (1983) before relocating to Nigeria, joining NICON Insurance, the foremost insurance company in Nigeria, in 1987 and becoming the company’s first female fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute London (FCII). Trailblazing for the ten-year service in Nicon Insurance, she honed her underwriting skills in special risks, marine, oil, energy and reinsurance classes of insurance.
Her versatility, brilliance and in-depth knowledge of the Nigerian insurance market was tapped by Anderson Consulting (1997) with the unenviable responsibility to open the consulting world to the insurance industry and vis-versa, thus enhancing partnerships that have now spanned decades.
Abimbola’s exit from her successful foray into the consulting ecosystem landed her a position as the Assistant General Manager (Operations) of a publicly quoted insurance company listed on the Nigerian Stock exchange, Unic Insurance Plc (1998), with a role that required her to formulate and execute strategic business plans to enhance statutory regulations and compliance.
Another feather was again added to her cap with the position of AGM (Oil & Energy) enlarging her portfolio, a position she maintained till December 2002 before becoming the pioneer Managing Director/CEO of Peakthrust Insurance Brokers Ltd from 2003 till date.
Bimbo’s role as the MD/CEO involves coordinating 5 branches nationwide, liaising with the Board of Directors and overseas technical partners, developing increased technical competence to ensure that Peakthrust remains one of the foremost insurance broking and financial services companies in the ecosystem.
Tell us about your formative years and how it has influenced you till date
My formative years (or in reality, the memory I have of them) were very pleasant and peaceful. As the first born of my parents, I experienced so much love and attention since their second child did not come until two and a half years after I was born.
After his arrival, I started kindergarten at such a tender age, and I guess with hindsight, that was where I developed my boisterous nature and my love for being around people. As a matter of fact, till date, that has been one of my hobbies, being a people watcher and mostly observing how the environment in which people find themselves affects their lives and decisions.
I attended the Army Children’s School, Ann barracks, Yaba, Lagos with my immediate junior brother, and I can fondly remember walking down the road of our street, Child Avenue, Apapa, Lagos hand-in-hand to catch the school bus in the morning. It was a rare treat. The school had limited number of children, the teachers paid us a lot of attention, and I excelled.
My formative years cannot be mentioned without disclosing the influence of my father, Late Rear Admiral Victor Ladipo Oduwaiye, who when it was time to go to secondary school decided he did not want me in the metropolis of Lagos, and sent me off to Queens School, Apata, Ibadan in Oyo-State. While he was a strict father, he was also very caring and possibly outshone my mother when it came to doting on me. Both my parents however alternated my visiting days and set me on a path where the care for people became a natural inclination of mine. I came out with a distinction in my WAEC examinations.
A small snag, the only university that would admit me was the university of Ife. Why? I was 15 years old when I left secondary school. My parents were a major strength in my life, most especially because at that time, I had become “born again” Christian and as you can imagine, this was a little strange at the time, but that notwithstanding, this awareness of the love of God in a new way paved a path for me which I continue till today.
I graduated with a BSc (Hons.) Economics and left for the United Kingdom immediately after my National Youth Service Corps year which I served in Jos Plateau State, teaching mathematics and economics in the Command Secondary School Jos.
How was your love for insurance birthed? How is it being sustained?
My interest in insurance came about after I finished my Master’s degree in Management & Technology at the University of Wales, United Kingdom and I was about to join the work force.
I had the options of going into Banking, Accountancy or Insurance. Of these three professions, insurance appeared to me to have a more human face, by the way, it was practiced at that time in the United Kingdom. From the cradle to the grave, there was some form of insurance provision which seemed to guarantee peace of mind to the recipient. I was already inclined to be people-facing with the nurturing background that I had, so I just gravitated towards insurance.
The situation was not as strict as it is now, and I was able to find a job in an insurance company in the United Kingdom, and they trained us to market flexible tailor-made protection plans that would suit the exact need of the individual concerned.
Sustaining my interest has not been difficult at all. Once one is providing a service that meets a need, there is a high level of satisfaction that that one derives, and the peace of mind that is generated is a major driving force.
Share your experience as an Associate, Hill Samuel Life Investment Services, and lessons learnt
My experience as an Associate, Hill Samuel Life & Investment Services was both challenging and satisfying. The challenge was multifaceted. Banks, building societies and investment companies marketed insurance. I was both female and black, and so it appeared that I was thrown in at the deep end. In addition to those issues, I also had to contend with the fact that it was a fee paying, rather than a fixed salaried job. What this meant was that my success depended largely on the number and type of insurance policy transactions I closed. It was also important that there should be no cancellations. Because our training was customer centric, I was able to excel, as my clientele base grew slowly but surely.
The major lesson learnt was that of meeting the needs of the client. One could not force insurance policies on them, as the competition was keen, and it was easy to compare what benefits they would be getting across the various insurance providers.
You were Nicon Insurance’s first female Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute London (FCII). How did that make you feel?
The National Insurance Company of Nigeria which name later changed to NICON was the leading insurance company in Nigeria at the time I relocated to the country. I had already commenced my professional examinations in the UK, and qualified as an Associate of the CII, London when I arrived. Being the first female Fellow was a great honour, most especially because I specialised in reinsurance by examination. It was not an honourary Fellowship. It was earned, and for that I am grateful to God.
How were you able to hone your underwriting skills in special risks, marine, oil, energy and reinsurance classes of Insurance?
By virtue of my specialisation, my first posting when I commenced working at NICON Insurance was in the reinsurance department where I spent the first four years. Subsequently, I was redeployed to the oil and energy department and finally the marine department. All these classes of insurance are regarded as special risks. They are not run-off the mill and require training on-the-job. Like I mentioned earlier, NICON was practically the best insurance training ground at the time, and I thank God that I was able to benefit from the training. I spent a total of ten years at NICON.
How were you able to open the consulting world to the insurance industry and vis-versa, thus enhancing partnerships that have now spanned decades?
Upon my exit from NICON after the ten-year stint, I got an opportunity to work at Andersen Consulting which later changed their name to Accenture.
The company was very well established in the banking sector but had not gathered much experience at that time in the insurance industry.
I was opportune to establish the insurance desk, and subsequently, Andersen Consulting made some very constructive in-road into the insurance industry by working with not only insurance, but re-insurance companies both in process re-engineering and strategy.
Moving from consulting back to insurance, share the entire experience with us
Even while consulting, I was still in insurance, but then as a consultant. When the opportunity came to work in the private sector in a publicly quoted insurance company, I saw it as a Godsend because, one can never compare the focus and business strategies of a private publicly quoted company that is answerable to shareholders to that of NICON that was at the time a government owned parastatal.
The core values, focus, drive, tenacity and grit with which the staff of a private company work are similar to those which I was exposed to in the UK, and I fitted in perfectly. While I first started as the Assistant General Manager (Operations) of UNIC Insurance Plc, I was later re-deployed to enhance the Oil & Energy portfolio. As the head of that unit reporting to the General Manager Technical, it expanded my horizon and gave me a firsthand experience in marketing to privately owned oil companies both in the upstream and downstream sectors.
When and why was Peakthrust Insurance Brokers Ltd formed?
Peakthrust Insurance Brokers Ltd was formed twenty years ago. It dawned on me during the tail end of my stay at UNIC Insurance Plc. that I was gifted with a combination of entrepreneurial, management and marketing skills. This coincided with a change in ownership of the company I was working with. When I considered that my foray into insurance in the United Kingdom was built on strong marketing skills that I had been trained in, I prayerfully decided to start my own company.
This was not fraught with its own challenges, but I had a determination to grow slowly, steadily and develop a company based on professionalism, integrity, innovation and commitment. As a broker, one’s understanding of the market is very key, and meeting the service and insurance needs of the clients was integral to our success as a company.
What does your organisation do and what has been the success story so far?
Put in simple lay man’s language, we act as an intermediary between the insuring public and the insurance companies.
While we do not bear any risks, we are extremely professional in the risk management of our clients’ portfolios. It is our responsibility to give the clients the widest cover available in the market at the most cost-effective price, bearing in mind both the needs of the client and the insurance capacity of the insurance company.
We are also experts in claims management, ensuring speedy processing of the claims of the client while not selecting against the insurer at the same time.
What are your responsibilities as MD/CEO and how do you carry it out?
As the Managing Director and Chief Executive officer, I supervise a team of professionals, using a multi-disciplinary approach and together we ensure that Peakthrust is in a vantage position to provide fast, efficient and qualitative services to federal government parastatals, manufacturing organisations, oil production, servicing and marketing companies, construction and engineering outfits, as well as the insuring public.
We maintain the highest level of professional ethics while being an active player in the financial services industry.
Peakthrust offers insurance broking and consulting services in life and pensions, oil and energy, agriculture, aviation and general services.
Peakthrust also offers allied financial broking services in fund and portfolio management. Our insurances are placed with only the highly reputable insurance companies certified by the National Insurance Commission (our regulator and supervisory body), and who have a track record in efficient and fast claims payment.
We maintain a highly computerised simple and bureaucracy-free operation that enhances optimum efficiency. We do rely heavily also on technology to facilitate our response time to the needs of our clients.
Do Nigerians take insurance seriously?
Recent happenings in the country and world-wide (COVID, collapse of buildings, market fires and so on) have put insurance at the forefront most especially with corporate organisations, the federal government and also many state governments.
NAICOM has also been working assiduously to enlighten the general public concerning the need to take on insurance policies for the protection of their lives and property.
This enlightenment campaign is gaining grounds very fast, however it is hoped that with legislation and enforcement of the compulsory insurances, for the good of the masses, insurance would be taken much more seriously by the general populace.
Why is insurance most times a hard sell, especially in Nigeria?
This is due to the intangibility of our service, and the fact that it is not tested until there is a claim at an unpredictable time in the future.
We do hope that with good prevention and risk management strategies, the claims will be few and far between, and so clients are sometimes hard pressed to see the value of insurance at a glance. However, having experienced the claims paid out speedily when the incidences occur, they find it easier to grasp and rationalise the concept of insurance.
What must the federal government and private companies do to promote insurance and to gain the confidence of the people to buy in?
The federal government can assist with more enlightenment but should also put strategies in place to enforce the compulsory insurances which are already backed up by law.
We also have trade bodies like the Nigerian Insurance Association (NIA), the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), the Insurance Loss Adjusters Nigeria (ILAN) who in their own capacity are empowered to enlighten the general public on the positive effect of having insurances for their lives and property.
What is it about insurance that everyone must know and why can it not be ignored?
Insurance provides peace of mind in that you can pass on the risks associated to your life and business to the risk managers, while you focus on your core competence.
Even when a claim occurs, it is the responsibility of the insurance company to provide compensation and put the client in the position they were in before the loss occurred, thus ensuring continuity and lack of financial bankruptcy due to business interruption.
What do you want to say to the electorate and Nigeria as a whole?
That as much as we can, elections must be peaceful. Nigeria is a great country with huge potential for both human capital and natural resources for which we have been endowed by God. To this end, and by the grace of God and our determination to walk for the good of the country, Nigeria and Nigerians will excel.
Share your unforgettable day and why?
The one day I can never forget in my life was when my junior brother, who at the age of 26years was already a Naval Lieutenant was shot by armed robbers and left to bleed and die.
It was a very sad day in our family, and the memory of what he could have become drives me to pray and hope for a better country where our lives can be safer, our resources better harnessed, and our country more peaceful.
Concluding words
It is my sincere hope that with God on our side, that insurance would take its rightful position within the financial industry and contribute an increased quota to the GDP of our country.
It is also my prayer that as our country makes a decision for a change in leadership, we will elect those who through the fear of God, dint of hard work and strategic management, take Nigeria to an enviable position among the comity of nations.
