The Director-General of
the Nigeria Insurance Association, Mr Sunday Thomas, on Friday told workers in the insurance sector not to panic over the gale of retrenchments in companies.
Thomas gave the advice in an interview with newsmen in Lagos against the backdrop of increasing job losses in key sectors of the economy, including banking and telecommunications.
He said that insurance companies were on top of their game and that there was no cause for alarm over job losses in the sector, in spite of the worsening state of the economy.
Thomas noted that operators in many sectors of the economy had faced serious economic challenges, forcing them cut salaries, retrench workers and even folding up.
He said that several banks had reduced their staff strength in a bid to stay afloat.
The director-general said, however, that the insurance sector mindful of the negative implication retrenchment would bring to the nation had no plans to layoff workers.
Thomas said that companies in the insurance sector had been trying to manage risks in the face of the economic challenges.
He expressed his optimism that the sector would benefit immensely in the ongoing efforts by the Federal Government to restructure the economy.
“It is the hope of the insurance sector that it will be a major beneficiary while the present administration is reconstructing the nation’s economy through infrastructure development and efficiency in governance,’’ Thomas said.