As climate change drives more frequent floods, heatwaves and new forms of loss across Nigeria, the insurance industry is being compelled to reassess how risk is identified, priced and insured. In this interview with OLUWAKEMI ABIMBOLA, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Rex Insurance, Mrs Ebelechukwu Nwachukwu, discusses how prepared the sector is to respond to these emerging risks and others.
You were recently named among the country’s leading corporate figures, an impressive achievement. What has your experience been like steering Rex Insurance since assuming office?
I dedicate myself to my work and focus on clear mandates in every role. Being recognised by the BusinessDay Awards and Almond Awards is an honour, especially as customer votes contributed. This reflects positively on my team and brand. You don’t succeed as a CEO when your team is not doing well. So, for people to recognise that means we are doing well, and that means a lot to me. Fantastic.
Building on that, how would you assess the performance of your team, whom you’ve just praised, since you assumed the role of Managing Director?
Well, it was not the easiest process. I’ll tell you the story; I hope it fits into the response I should be giving. I joined the company in January 2023, a company that is over 100 years old. We had an ageing workforce, very archaic, slow processes, and our market recognition score was very low in terms of customer service. Technology adoption was not optimal. That was the company I inherited; the brand was not recognised as strong.
So, my mandate when I joined was very clear: transform the business, make it more optimal, make it more customer-friendly, and make it the insurance company of choice. We did start the whole process. On most CEOs’ resumes, the first thing they do is go to the market to look for more business. I spent the first six months working internally to optimise our processes and work on the people. The company already had very skilled people; old companies pay a lot of attention to skill development. So we had that at Rex already. But were the people empowered to utilise those skills in a way that was positive for the organisation? I had to turn that around.
So, we did a lot of restructuring internally, we made many process changes, we engaged technology to help us in many ways, and my team was very receptive to all the changes that needed to happen. We’re making it happen. It’s still a process; it’s a journey, but I think we’ve started it. We’ve laid a good foundation upon which we can build the Rex brand.