Fraudulent insurance agents easily secure new jobs from insurance firms unhindered, Association of Registered Insurance Agents of Nigeria (ARIAN) President, Ademola Fagbayi has said.

He spoke at the association’s  Annual National Conference, Investiture, Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos.

Fagbayi, who said the association is seeking collaboration with the Nigeria Insurers Association (NIA) to help end the menace and preserve the integrity of professional agents, called on insurance firms to cooperate with them by providing names and other information of any agent found guilty of committing a fraud.

He said: “As professional agents, we are not happy that fraudulent agents are able to commit fraud and continue to tarnish our image. Our major challenge is the fact that they are able to move from one insurance company to another. They easily get new jobs because the companies are eager to recruit in recent times.

“This is why we are calling on insurance companies to co-operate with us. We want to collaborate with the companies and NIA. The type of collaboration that we want from the companies is the type that they will send names of agents that commit fraud to us so that we can stop the renewal of license to such agent. This will put an end to fraudulent agent moving from one company to another.

“This is because ARIAN certificate is one of the conditions for license by the regulatory authority, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM). So that when they find it difficult to renew their license with us at the association, they will not be able to get their agency license from the commission and in turn, they won’t be able to get a job in the sector again.”

Meanwhile, ARM Life Plc Managing Director, Steve Alangbo, who was the guest speaker at the event, in his paper titled: “Retail insurance & digital transformation” advised the agents to leverage technology to attract more policy holders into the insurance value chain.

He urged the agents to take advantage of the social media platforms to reach out to the uninsured in the country, stressing that technology would help make the agents more relevant, engender huge premium generation and enhance service delivery.

“As agents, you also need to help your offices initiate easy ways of paying premium and settling claims,” he added.