Business
Insurance Industry Posts N250bn Premium Income
The insurance industry recorded N250 billion Gross Premium Income in 2012, the Commissioner for Insurance, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Mr Fola Daniel, has said.
Daniel made this known at the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) 2013 Annual Dinner in Lagos.
The event featured the Investiture of Mr Fatai Kayode Lawal as the 45th President of the institute.
Daniel said that the increase from N157 billion in 2010 to N250 billion was due to the implementation of the Market Development and Restructuring Initiative (MDRI).
Reports say that the MDRI, introduced NAICOM, is the industry’s roadmap to achieving Vision 20:2020.
“The realities of the past three years show that the number of those insured increased from 500, 000 to 1.5 million in 2012.
“This shows that the number of the insuring public tripled within three years.
“Foreign equity ratio also increased from three in 2010 to 10 in 2012, while capacity in the oil and gas sector, which was less than 10 per cent, increased to 40 per cent in 2012,” Daniel said.
According to him, in spite of these achievements, the industry has a long way to go to meet up with developed countries including South Africa.
The NAICOM commissioner urged the new CIIN president to ensure that his administration would build on the success of the initiative.
He said that the CIIN was in the best position to bring the industry players together to chart the way forward.
He urged that the institute should have a think tank to deliberate on national issues and advise accordingly.
Daniel gave the assurance that the commission would continue to take corrective steps to move the industry forward as part of its regulatory mandate.
He said that the commission’s disciplinary actions were designed to develop the insurance industry.
The Chairman of the occasion, Mr Akintola Williams, urged insurance operators to provide the best way to tackle risks in the face of threats to businesses.
Williams, a former President, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, urged all professionals to be in the vanguard of tackling the nation’s problems.
He said that professionals were aware of the Federal Government’s good intentions through its transformation agenda.
Williams hoped that the insurance industry pool of funds would help operators to tackle emerging risks as well as provide a platform to check foreign invasion of the industry.
The immediate past CIIN President, Dr Wole Adetimehin, urged Lawal to keep the institute’s flag flying.
He urged members of the institute and the media to cooperate with Lawal to make his tenure successful.
In his acceptance speech, Lawal promised that his administration would hasten the construction of the College of Insurance and Financial Management.
Reports say that Lawal was a former Chairman of the College of Insurance and Financial Management Board.
He was also a Chief Examiner of the CIIN.
Cornerstone of Financial Services
A survey of more than 1 000 global finance leaders undertaken by digital payment network Ripple shows that 72% of respondents believe they need to offer a digital asset solution to remain competitive.
According to Ripple, leaders from the banking, fintech, corporate and asset management sector have made it clear that the “digital asset revolution is happening now”.
“Digital assets are quickly becoming a cornerstone of financial services, underpinned by progressive regulation, growing interest from Tier-1 banks, a steady consumer shift from banks to fintech providers, and booming stablecoin adoption,” Ripple says.
The survey was conducted in early 2026 and the findings released in March.
Stablecoin Boon or Bane?
Ripple has experienced significant success in the stablecoin sector since launching its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin in 2024.
With a market cap of $1.56 billion, it is considered a major regulated player in the market.
No doubt the platform was pleased to learn through its own survey that financial leaders were most bullish about stablecoins.
Roughly three-quarters of respondents believed they could boost cash-flow efficiency and unlock trapped working capital.
Ripple noted that finance leaders were thinking about stablecoins as more than “just a new way to execute payments”; instead, they viewed them as effective tools for treasury management.
In March 2026, Ripple began testing a new trade finance model built around RLUSD in a bid to increase the speed of cross-border payments.
The pilot initiative, developed alongside supply chain finance company Unloq [https://unloq.com], is running on the XRP Ledger inside a testing framework developed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The Asian city-state is one of the platform’s biggest growth markets.
The idea behind the project is to see whether stablecoin-based settlement can streamline trade finance, too often hampered by reliance on intermediaries and slow reconciliation.
The only potential drawback is that if the initiative takes off, the Ripple to USD price could be negatively affected.
Ripple has always championed its native XRP token as a bridge asset, the “middleman” in the process of a financial institution turning dollars in the US into pounds in the UK, for example.
Ripple converts dollars into XRP and then back into pounds.
If RLUSD can do exactly the same thing, questions will be asked about XRP’s relevance.
That is a bridge Ripple will have to cross if it gets to that point.
Tokenisation Partners
Another interesting finding from Ripple’s survey is that most banks and asset managers are seeking tokenisation partners to help execute their strategies.
Some 89% of respondents said digital asset storage and custody were top priority. “Token servicing/lifecycle management also ranks highly for banks at 82%, while asset managers place greater emphasis on primary distribution at 80%,” Ripple found.
The survey also revealed that just more than half of fintechs and financial institutions want an infrastructure provider that can offer a “one-stop-shop solution”. This rose to 71% among corporate financial leaders.
Ripple attributes this to institutions and firms wanting uncomplicated, cohesive systems.
Infrastructure Rules
In its final analysis, Ripple says companies across the board are looking for partners and solutions that are “secure, compliant, battle-tested and that enable growth and execution”.
“The message is clear: infrastructure decisions made today will shape competitive positioning tomorrow.”
No surprise that this is precisely where Ripple is placing much of its focus.
