Follow Career Path in Insurance, Experts counsel Nigerian Youths

By Godson lkoro

Nigerian Youths have been advised to follow career path in insurance to take advantage of the lucrative and versatile opportunities inherent in the profession.

The Rector, College of Insurance and Financial Management (CIFM) Dr. Mrs Chizoba Ehiogu gave this counseling at the Capacity Building and Empowerment programme organized by the Finance and Business Online Publishers Association for Nigerian youths held recently in MUSON Centre Onikan Lagos.

Speaking on insurance as a successful careerpath, she defined a careerpath as the sequence of work-related experiences, roles, and positions an individual holds throughout their working life. It’s a progression of jobs, skills, and experiences that help achieve career goals and personal growth.

Citing artisans like automobile mechanics , brick layers among others , Ehiogu said that once an individual does a job for more than ten years consistently and advanced in experience, , that person could be said to have had a career in that field.

After she discovered that almost none of the youth had a parent who studied insurance, she took time to explain the various opportunities in the insurance profession.
Dr Ehiogu narrated to the youth how she wanted to study accountancy but couldn’t not get direct admission. She said she started with Insurance with the hope to change to accounting but before she could finish the semester, she began to love insurance to the extent that with the required CGPA of 4.1, she refused to change to accounting but graduated in insurance.

She averred that the youths predominantly going to write Unified tertiary Matriculation exam should choose and study Insurance as a very noble and profitable profession which guarantees employment opportunities.

“if you want, job opportunities , job security and a secure career, you have to think insurance, she said the Youth.

According to her,the career path starts with job progression
advancing through various roles, often with increasing responsibility.
She argued that in Insurance, opportunities abound for acquiring new skills and expertise to enhance career prospects either as an Underwriter, Analyst, Insurance Technologist or Insure Tech, insurance lecturership among others; emphasizing that it is only insurance that has less than 30 professors in Nigeria. Above all she said there is no retirement from insurance, if you’re retired in the public office, you can still practice the profession from the comfort of your home adding that the older the better with more experience.
She said that apart over 26 tertiary institutions offering insurance in Nigeria, there are also professional institutes that offer opportunities for certification. Examples of institutes are Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria, institute of Loss Adjusters.
Ehiogu spoke so glowingly about the opportunities in insurance that some of the youths interest were roused to study insurance.
She encouraged others who may have studied other courses like History and international relations, or deplomacy who are yet to be employed to start certificate courses in Insurance . She said that there are the intermediate and advanced certifications which qualifies them for a career in insurance.

She emphasized that a well-planned career path can lead to fulfilling and successful professional life.
Earlier, Mojisola Ogundipe, Senior Manager and Team Lead , Persistency AIICO insurance PLC gave a narrative that ventilated the importance and indispensablity in life whether as individual or as a business. She gave the youths some mantras which will guide them in life such as ” Ask questions before you sign anything”, “start small and learn big” and ” never stop learning about money “.
Similarly, the president of FiBOP, Mr. Charles Onwutago had emphasized the need for the youths to embrace financial literacy if they must effectively navigate the complexities of the emerging economy.
Other experts in their various contributions re-echoed the importance of financial literacy of the youth as they were taught to never stop learning about money.