APA - Lagos (Nigeria) The Director-General of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), Mr Adegboyega Adepegba, said on Saturday in Lagos that the success in micro-insurance in Uganda could be replicated in Nigeria.

Adepegba said the institute’s 2009 education seminar for managers and marketing executives would focus on micro-insurance and that the success in India, Bolivia, Bangladesh and Uganda command significant attention for developing countries where its replication will serve similar market needs.

He said that the education seminar, which has the theme : ``Developing the Grassroots Insurance Market through Micro-insurance,” will be held in Abuja from December 2 to December 3.

Adepegba said in a statement to journalists in Lagos on Saturday that micro-insurance had been proven worldwide as the only way to popularise insurance.

“The micro-insurance model is being canvassed globally as a veritable approach to the effective retailing of insurance products and services for purposes of meeting the insurance needs of the grassroots.

“This comprises peasant farmers, petty-traders and operators of rural cottage industries,” he said.

Adepegba said that micro-insurance could re-define the Nigerian insurance market, deepen penetration and challenge the expertise of practitioners in the industry’s poor performance.

He said that the focus on micro-insurance was the institute’s contribution to the deepening of the insurance market in Nigeria.

He urged insurance companies to avail their managers and marketing executives the opportunity of skills redefinition at a time that the market was in need of diversification.

Adepegba said that issues like the role of insurance branch offices in the development and management of micro-insurance portfolios, the micro-insurance model and grassroots insurance marketing would also be discussed.