By Francis Ewherido
The Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) reached another milestone today when Mrs. Ekeoma Ezeibe was installed as the 23rd President of NCRIB, the third woman to achieve that feat. Her foray into insurance started in Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation (Nigeria Re) during her National Youth Service Corps in 1987/1988, where she worked in the legal department. She was retained after her NYSC. That marked the beginning of a remarkable career in insurance for the past 38 years.
In 1991, she moved to Liberty Assurance Company Limited as the company secretary/legal adviser and head of claims department. In 1992, she was on the move again to Industrial and General Insurance Company Limited (IGI) as its pioneer company secretary/legal adviser. Mrs. Ezeibe has worked under some of the best brains in the insurance industry who doubled as her mentors. She later co-founded Crystal Trust Insurance Brokers Limited with her husband, Prince Azubuike Ezeibe and became its managing director/CEO, a position she occupies till date.
You do not emerge the President of NCRIB overnight. You pay your dues and Mrs. Ezeibe has surely paid her dues. Before her emergence today as NCRIB President, Ezeibe was honorary treasurer of the NCRIB 2017 to 2019, vice president from 2021 to 2023 and deputy president from 2023 until her emergence as president today. She has also held other positions or performed other tasks at NCRIB – governing board member for the past 13 years and served in the following committees: events organising for three years with two years as the chairman, charter implementation committee for 13 years, government liaison officer for eight years, investigation panel member for 11 years with four years as its vice chairman, membership and registration committee for 10 years with two years as the chairman as well as chairman, micro insurance and takaful for four years, election screening committee for three years, chairman, NAICOM Help Desk/Help Desk for eight years, deputy chairman, audit committee for two years; finance and general purpose committee for four years with two years as the deputy chairman and member, management committee for six years.
She equally served in the following ad-hoc committees of the NCRIB: 50th anniversary/compendium launch in 2011/2012, review of staff handbook in 2011/2012, legal assessor to the disciplinary tribunal, 2011/2012; investiture committee of the 17th president, chairman of that of the 19th president investiture committee and chairman, finance sub-committee of the 20th president investiture, member, micro-insurance working group (MIWG) of Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA), member, Insurance Consolidated Bill, 2016, Chairman, Insurance Consolidated Bill, 2020 and 2023 and Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Bill, 2024 till it was signed into law.
At the Professional Insurance Ladies Association (PILA), she was the book reviewer of The Pillar: Evolution, Trends and Development of PILA at its launch in 2018. She served/serves as a member of the constitution review committee in 2018 and constitution regulation committee set up in 2019, a member of the electoral committee for four years from 2020 to 2024, Chairman, 50th Anniversary Book Committee that saw to the publishing of Modern Insurance Practice – A textbook for tertiary institutions.
At the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), she served and serves in the following committees: 2020 Electoral Committee, Investitures of the 50th, 51st and 52nd presidents, education committee member from 2022 till date, enabling law review from 2022 till date.
Under the Insurance Industry Consultative Council (IICC), Mrs. Ezeibe served in the National Insurance Conference Planning Committee for three conferences – 2017, 2018 and 2019. She served as a member, ad-hoc committee on 70 years in Insurance of the Doyen of Insurance, Olola Olabode Ogunlana. She equally led the IICC delegation for its corporate social responsibility programme at an internally displaced persons’ camp in Abuja in 2019.
Mrs. Ezeibe is the Chairman of the Nigerian Insurance Industry Committee on African Continental Free Trade Agreement (NII-AfCFTA Committee). At the continental level and at the African Insurance Brokers’ Association (AIBA), she served as secretary from 2022 to 2024, treasurer from 2024 to 2025 and currently, its Vice Chairman where she made history as the first woman to occupy the position.
She was a member of the Constitution Drafting Committee that established the Africa Insurance Women Association (AIWA) of which she is a member and equally conducted the passing of the resolution that legally set up the body including having the privilege to swear in its 1st President, the late Lady Margaret Nkechi Moore on 31st May, 2023 in Algiers, Algeria. Ezeibe is also a member of the Insurance Committee of the International Chamber of Shipping, London, United Kingdom.
Mrs. Ekeoma Ezeibe (then Miss Obi) studied law at Imo State University, now Abia State University. She obtained her Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) degree 39 years ago and proceeded to the Nigerian Law School, Lagos, where she obtained her Barrister at Law (B.L) and was called to the Nigerian Bar a year later. She went on to obtain a obtain her Master of Laws (LL.M) degree from the University of Lagos from the University 34 years.
The bug of insurance bit her and having entered the insurance industry as a lawyer, she had to take tortuous path to be reckoned with in the insurance profession. She has since gone on to obtain her insurance professional qualifications. She is an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute (ACII), London, with distinctions in claims practice and advances in strategic risk management. She’s an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (AIIN) and she is currently a Fellow, Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (FCIB). She is one of those insurance professionals with the capacity to shoot effectively with both feet: She is an accomplished lawyer and chartered insurance professionals.
The insurance industry has been a great beneficiary of her legal and insurance prowess. Over the years, she has given more than 40 pro bono lectures on diverse topics in law, regulation, compliance and insurance across all platforms in the insurance industry. She is an award-winning lecturer at the Nigerian Chamber of Shipping where she has taught different topics on marine insurance in the past 14 years. So far, I have not bothered to describe Mrs. Ezeibe as an intellectual powerhouse, a beauty and brains because “res ipsa loquitur (the thing speaks for itself).”
At a personal level, Mrs. Ezeibe is married to Prince Azubuike Ezeibe and they are blessed with children and grandchildren. Mrs. Ezeibe comes from a closely-knit royal family of strict parents and eight children. Mrs. Ezeibe is a personal friend, although we call each other inlaw for the promise of a wife that was never fulfilled. That wasn’t her fault because my supposed wife-to-be still about four years when I got married. We met through a mutual friend in 1993 before we became colleagues at Industrial and General Insurance in 1994. I was at her Igba Nkwu (traditional marriage) in Owerri in 1995. the day before, we arrived in Owerri at about 11:30pm because some portions of the road were very bad. A feast of assorted foods awaited us. Some of us ate Ofe Owerri soup from the time we arrived to the next day. Although, I studied at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and had previously eaten Ofe Owerri, that was the first time I ate such a delicious Ofe Owerri with stockfish assorted meat and fish fighting for space in the soup. Some of us, mainly non-Igbos ate until we put eba in our mouths but we couldn’t swallow anymore because there was no space left for the incoming bowls of eba and meat. I was totally “fed up.”
Having known Mrs. Ezeibe for 32 years I have no doubt that she will take the NCRIB to greater heights. I have only one request. Please install a lift(elevator) in the NCRIB Secretariat during your presidency. It is an anomaly, like many other buildings with multiple floors, for a secretariat of four floors not to have a lift. Older members, physically challenged members and members with health challenges need it to be able to access the secretariat stress-free, especially the upper floors, and participate actively in NCRIB activities. That’s the standard practice abroad.
Congratulations, madam president.
Francis Ewherido is the MD/CEO of Titan Insurance Brokers Limited and a Niger Delta Today columnist
