For more than 10 years, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and the National Pension Commission (PenCom) struggled to find a common ground for the operation of life annuity business.

A conflicting regulation between the duo caused various challenges of compliance.

It came to a head in 2017, when both government agencies headed by the former Commissioner for Insurance, Mohammed Kari and Director-General, PenCom, Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu bickered, leading to the intervention of the former Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, who called a truce between them, although there was no headway. This also led the two regulators to issue a circular on the administration of life annuity for pensioners in March 2017.

But the two agencies seem to have reach an agreement under the heads of the two agencies, Mr Sunday Thomas of NAICOM and Mrs Aisha Dahir-Umar of PenCom, as The Nation learnt that they would soon sign sign a guideline for annuity business. While the bickering lasted between the insurance and pension industry, the consumers of the product and the operators suffered.

The operators of the two industries had also been accusing each other of demarketing. As provided for by the Pension Reform Act 2014, the modalities for payment of retirement benefits are through life annuity, which is obtainable from life insurance companies or through programme withdrawal, which is obtainable from Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs). Either of the two methods is available depending on the retiree.

The Commissioner for Insurance, Mr. Sunday Thomas confirmed to The Nation that the two had reached an agreement and would soon sign the guidelines for the two industries. He said: “On our part, we have been able to identify all the areas where the industry has been de-marketed and we are working on them. we will sign the annuity guideline PenCom very soon. It has been pending since 2017 but we are happy that everything will go well going forward. “I have been very concerned as to why insurance companies are limited in annuity business.

The annuity business looks like it is slowing down but it will soon be one of profit driving business for the insurance industry.” Former Chairman, AIICO Insurance, Dele Fajemirokun, at an event on insurance and pension, called on the regulators to tone down on the guidelines meant to supervise the sectors.

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