The Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) has appointed the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc, Eddie Efekoha as the organisation’s 49th president.
Efekoha who is a prominent figure in the Nigerian insurance industry, would be taking over from Fumi Babington-Ashaye after her one-year tenure from.
Eddie Agberia Efekoha was born on the 16th of August 1959 in Egbo-Uhurie, Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State. He attended Anglican Primary School Egbo-Uhurie and Agbassa Primary School in Warri, where he obtained his First School Leaving Certificate in 1971. He proceeded to Nana College, Warri. He attended Teacher Training College between 1974 and 1979 from where he obtained the Teacher Grade II Certificate.
As a trained teacher, Efekoha taught briefly before joining Warri Refinery & Petro-Chemical Company in 1979 as a Plant Operator. It was during his stay with the refinery that he studied as a part-time student and passed the GCE Advanced Level in Geography and Economics.
Efekoha was a pioneer student of economics at the then Bendel State University, now Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma, but spent just one academic session before accepting an admission to study Insurance at the University of Lagos in 1982. He graduated in 1985 with a Bachelor of Science Degree and in 1995 obtained a Master Degree in Business Administration from the same university.
Efekoha became an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute of London in 1987 and Fellow of the same Institute in 1991, specialising in property insurance. He was consequently made a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria in 1995. Earlier this year, 2018, Efekoha was admitted as a Fellow of the Institute of Directors, Nigeria.
His work experience in the insurance industry started with Everyman Insurance Brokers Limited, Ilorin in 1985, where he did his National Youths Service and was later retained as a staff. He worked briefly with Hogg Robinson Nigeria (1986-1988), from where he left for Glanvill Enthoven & Co (Nigeria) as an Assistant Manager. Due to his versatility, hard work and extra-ordinary capacity, he was later appointed Executive Director in charge of the company’s technical operations.
Efekoha left Glanvill Enthoven & Co in 1997 to spearhead the turnaround of Fountain Insurance Brokers Limited as its Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer. In 2003, Efekoha became Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of Consolidated Risk Insurers Plc, after he and other investors acquired the then Metropolitan Trust Insurance Company Limited, which was renamed as Consolidated Risk Insurers Plc (CRI).
In 2007, CRI, Hallmark Assurance Plc and Nigerian General Insurance Company Limited concluded a merger and the parent company named Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc, where Efekoha emerged as Managing Director.
About CIIN
Founded in 1959, the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) was known and referred to as Insurance Institute of Nigeria until February 26, 1993 when it became chartered. Upon establishment in 1959, the Institute became the rallying point for insurance practitioners in Nigeria, comprising a few expatriates and their Nigerian counterparts whose pioneering efforts provided the building blocks for what has now become a veritable force in the country’s financial services industry and economy at large.