CHI pledges support for CIIN’s building project

Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc has promised to financially support the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria on its building project.

The Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, CHI, Mr Eddie Efekoha, said this when the executives of CIIN paid a courtesy visit to his company’s headquarters in Obanikoro, Lagos. He noted that though the insurance industry was going through tough times financially, the company would support the project to ensure the dream of having a befitting edifice for CIIN is realised.

The CIIN building project, which had been abandoned because of funding issues, is located in Victoria Island, Lagos and estimated to gulp N2bn to complete it.

Efekoha said, “We are all aware that the industry is undergoing recapitalisation at a critical time that there is a paucity of fund in the industry. “Claims are piling up, and businesses are not forthcoming in insurance because they too are going through tough times, hence, could not insure and in all these, companies must recapitalise to survive, hence, our survival is paramount.

“So, we will look into it, after surviving. We can’t be too specific on the amount, but we will support the initiative.”

He appealed to other companies to support the CIIN building project to ensure that the education arm of the insurance industry has a good building it can call its own and generate revenue from it.

Thanking CHI for the kind gesture, the President, CIIN, Muftau Oyegunle, said his administration had to revisit the building project which started 33 years ago, believing it was a legacy of the insurance industry and must be supported by stakeholders in the insurance industry.

He stated that, though the institute had, in the recent past, tasked its individual members to raise some funds to restart the project, the initiative yielded about N200m, which was still far from the budget.

From the proceed of the fundraised, he said, the institute had paid off debt owed some contractors, did integrity test on the building and redesigned the structure to make it modern, stating that, if all these were not done, it would be difficult to start anything on the project.

As it was, he said, everything that needed to be done had been done, including updating the documentation with the Lagos State government, among others. He said, the institute had N100m now to restart the project, hoping to raise the remaining through institutional members of the institute, which includes, insurance companies, brokers, among others.

Tracing the history of the building project, past President, CIIN, Mrs Seyi Ifaturoti, said the foundation of the building was laid around 1987 and was built to the first floor before funding challenges came up and since then, nothing substantial was done on it.