So, before this interview, I had only seen Dr Mrs. Funmi Babington Ashaye (FAB), in pictures and online. Yes, she looked very nice and unassuming, but that is just a picture, right? However, as we continued to chat, as we planned the interview and photoshoot prior to the D-Day, I began to learn a few things about FAB. She is a very detailed and articulate woman. But, why am I not surprised? You need those traits to be able to survive in the very challenging Nigerian business environment. And then I finally met FAB, and she was absolutely fabulous. She is indeed the 360 degrees woman, intelligent, beautiful, gracious, smart, professional, courteous, kind, and calm, business savvy and successful….enough from me. We got down to the chats and I was blown away by her sheer intimidating profile. Please meet FAB, an amazing insurance professional……
Brief Insight into my background
I was born into a family of six and I am the fourth child, to late Mr. Alfred Olubunmi Akinbami and Mrs. Esther Olatunde Akinbami. I am from Abeokuta in Ogun State, was raised by very devout Christian parents. I grew up in a loving and ideal Christian family. So, it was difficult for my peers to negatively influence me during my adolescent years. Going to going to school and excelling in our studies were non-negotiable, so was regular church attendance. I attended Methodist Primary School, Yaba, Lagos and Lisabi Grammar School, Abeokuta. My routine was like a triangle: from home to lecture room to library, and back home.
These values helped me in my tertiary education at the Lagos State Polytechnic, where I emerged as the best graduating Higher National Diploma student in Insurance Department in 1987. I also, passed the final level of the UK’s Chartered Insurance Institute’s professional examinations with a lot of awards, including the prestigious JC’s Lepine Prize Award. Same year, I started my insurance career with Royal Exchange Assurance Plc, as an Insurance Superintendent and later joined Cornerstone Insurance PLC, as a pioneer staff in 1991. Through dint of hard work and exceptional performance, I rose through the ranks and became the MD/CEO of the company within fifteen years. I am also, an Alumnus of Ambrose Alli University; Lagos Business School; a Fellow of Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria and United Kingdom; a Council member of the Institute of Directors of Nigeria, the 48th President of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria; a Past President of Entrepreneurs’ Organisation, Lagos Chapter (an international organisation of entrepreneurs with headquarters in Virginia USA), member of Ikoyi Club 1938, as well as an active member of the Professional Insurance Ladies Association.
My humble background, which I remember clearly also shaped who I am today, as I know that my parents struggled to send me to school! When people talk about being “born with a silver spoon”, I smile because, I did not even see a spoon let alone, one with a colour! In fact, one of his office, paid for my professional examinations in London all through, because my father could not afford it.
Tell us a bit about your more than 30years experience as an insurance expert.
I started my insurance career in 1987 with Royal Exchange Assurance Plc, as an underwriter. In 1991, a professional colleague and I started Cornerstone Insurance Plc, with few other industry professionals.
18 years later, I rose to Managing Director at Cornerstone Insurance plc, I was also the first female MD of the company. I then left to start my insurance brokerage firm. In 2009, I was appointed as Managing Director of Nicon Insurance Plc. I returned back to my business when I finished my assignment at Nicon Insurance.
The journey so far has been both challenging and eventful. Insurance industry, is a male dominated industry and as a woman, you have to do 10 times more than your male counterparts. I have had my fair share of injustice to women but have been intentional, focused and dedicated, towards the achievement of my set goals.
I am very passionate about insurance. Passion keeps me innovative and creative. This also makes me feel a sense of achievement and fulfilment when I put smile on my clients’ face, especially during claims settlement.
What risk does having insurance mitigate for individuals and corporate businesses?
Life is full of risks. Everything you do involves one element of risk, or the other whether as an individual or a company. Risk is the possibility of a loss, injury, or any other situation in the future, involving hazard/danger. Insurance is a form of arrangement that involves contractual transfer of risks to insurance companies. Individuals are exposed to the risk of fire occurring and damaging their houses and properties, risk of death of a loved one, risk of thieves entering their homes and carting away properties, risk of an accident to their vehicles, and these risks can easily be transferred to the insurance company. In the event of occurrence of any of the risk insured against, the insurance company will provide financial compensation to the insured.
On the corporate side, Organizations are exposed to risk of financial loss due to fire incidences, we all saw the effect of the ENDSARS protest in 2020, the risk of damage due to fraud committed by their staff is insurable, risk of accident to their employees, which will result to financial loss to the company through medical expenses etc. Also risk of death of a staff can be covered under Group Life Assurance Policy.
You are four in one, Entrepreneur, Mentor, Author, and philanthropist. Which of them is easier and which of them is more challenging?
The easiest is the mentorship programme, because I am passionate about people and love to share my life journey with women. FBA Foundation, is a non-profit organization primarily focused on making positive impacts in the lives of indigent students and women, through scholarships and mentoring.
We provide a mentoring and advocacy platform that inspires women to achieve their maximum potential in career, business, and family life. We are trusted partners in mentoring and advocacy. We are “The 360-degree woman”
When I see mentees flourishing in areas where they were having challenges before they joined the programme, it gives me so much joy. I am glad to be involved in this because we have had many success stories.
The most challenging is being an Entrepreneur in the Insurance Industry, in particular and Nigeria in general.
A number of challenges including low insurance awareness, low insurance penetration, less than 1% of the population has one insurance or the other, low level of technological infrastructure, inadequate pricing, inadequate distribution channels, low public confidence and trust in Insurance, are the challenges facing the insurance industry. So, to succeed in such industry, you need to be very innovative and creative. It also shows that there are lots of opportunities in the industry as well. The potentials in the industry are yet untapped.
Unfortunately, the majority of Nigerians are living below poverty line, of less than one dollar per day and so, are largely uninsured. Hence, when disaster strikes, they find it difficult to find their feet again, but with the recent introduction of micro- insurance with payment of small premium, this issue is been addressed.
Time management is key for an entrepreneur such as yourself, how do you manage time effectively?
Running a business can be overwhelming for entrepreneurs, mastering time management skills is essential for business’ success. Time is a perishable commodity and, once lost, cannot be recovered.
Effective time management, helps you achieve get more work in less time. Personally, I have weekly and daily to do list, which I am very committed to. I draw up my weekly to do list every Sunday evening, in order of priority and my daily to do list every morning, moving the unfinished work to the next day. Another thing I do is to set short term and long terms goals, which helps a lot in managing my time effectively. I also outsource non-core work to professionals, to enable me focus more on important areas of the business.
Manage Energy, not Time
One method to managing a productive work day, is to manage energy rather than time.
Avoid Distractions
Time wasters such as Facebook and other social media networks, are the worst killers of productivity. Time wasters could also be colleagues and family, who demand your attention.
After your time in various blue -chip insurance companies, what made you start Risk Analyst Insurance Brokers Limited?
I saw a huge gap in the insurance industry especially in the areas of prompt claims settlement, service delivery and public enlightenment. So, I started Risk Analyst Insurance Brokers Limited, to add value in these areas. Also, the potential policy buyers are not very informed about various policies, and benefits. This information gap has been a major challenge in the marketing of insurance business. After my stint at Cornerstone Insurance PLC, and NICON Insurance PLC, I had to set up Risk Analyst Insurance Brokers Ltd, to provide this invaluable support to the insurance value chain, so that potential policy buyers can be guided to make optimum policy choices. Our role as Brokers is to breakdown the policy into simple terms, explain its benefits and shortcomings (if any), and provide the potential policy buyer with rich information to make decisions. We also work with underwriters to develop unique products that will satisfy the needs of some stakeholders. Risk Analyst Insurance Brokers as insurance brokers provide:
1. Ensuring prompt claims settlement
2. Negotiating competitive terms and premium
3. Ensuring timely and efficient service delivery.
4. Giving personalized service to our clients.
We also, offer young Nigerian’s trainings on skills needed for the industry and opportunities too.
In 2017, I launched a book on Insurance titled Insurance in Practice “All You Need to Know about Insurance in Nigeria”. The book is available on Amazon, Okada books and bookshops in Nigeria.
What is your assessment of Female Entrepreneurs in Lagos and Nigeria?
Women have a great role to play in national development and nation building. The government must adequately resource the Women Affairs Ministry, so that it can play its role more. Women Cooperatives need to be created, and adequately resourced to boost their contributions to the nation’s GDP. I resolved to play my part by giving back to society as well.
Hence, I founded the Funmi Babington-Ashaye (FBA) Foundation, in 2015. In the last 6 years, FBA Foundation has successfully given scholarships to eligible students of the University of Lagos, Lagos State Polytechnic and Lisabi Junior and Senior School, Abeokuta, which happens to be my Alma mater. I also mentor female executives by building and honing their skills, to achieve success at work and at home, under the auspices of FBA Foundation Mentorship Program, which started in 2020. My vision is to raise distinctive leaders globally, through this mentorship initiative.
The challenges faced by women entrepreneurs are enormous, yet they are more involved in micro- enterprises (Informal sector), because it is easy start up for their survival.
In Lagos, we have more women entrepreneur than other states, especially SME’s. This is because they are more educated, and live in the city.
Therefore, the Nigerian government should create more institutions that would assist the entrepreneurial activities of women. The existing entrepreneurial development programmes, (SMEDAN), should encourage women to take advantage of the available development schemes. Government, non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders should encourage rural women by providing education, enlightenment and training, at little or no cost to them.
Tell us about your mentees and what values you think they would provide in the near future from your mentorship.
The FBA Mentors programs: aim is to provide a mentoring and advocacy platform that inspires women to achieve their maximum potential in career, business and in Family Life. “We are 360 Degree woman”
Our Core Values are: Integrity, Family, Purpose, Resilience, Compassion and Courage.
We have successfully produced managing directors, and C-suite executives. We have younger mentees, mentored by the older mentees. Our dream is to be able to produce the next generation of women leaders.
The Mentorship program has successfully hosted several seminars on Leadership, Management, Technology, Finance and personal effectiveness, and one-on-one mentoring sessions with the founder.
What’s next for Risk Analyst Insurance Brokers limited?
Risk Analyst Insurance Brokers Ltd, started 15years ago, we give personalized service to our clients.
We aim to give peace of mind to our clients, and create wealth and sustainable value for our shareholders. Our vision is to be the preferred African Insurance and Risk Management Company.
Our competitive advantage is our personalized service to our clients, and our combined management experience of over 100 years. We are a company driven by values. We do not compromise standards and ethics. Furthermore, we regularly engage our stakeholders to feel their pulse about our services, and how best we can serve them. We combine personal touch and professionalism to delight our clients and sustain their patronage.
What is next for the company?
We want to be top of the mind company in insurance broking, in Nigeria. We want to continue to change the negative perception of insurance in Nigeria, and also create more awareness about Insurance.
What do you think about Lagos Female Entrepreneur Award, as a platform that celebrates Female Entrepreneurs?
This is a worthy cause, because of the many challenges women entrepreneurs are faced with, and are in dire need of support and encouragement on their journey.
This platform will encourage other women to start their own businesses, with the belief that all they need is the ability to dream and plan towards it, and all other things will follow.
The Government alone cannot support women entrepreneurs. The public and private sectors must partner with them, and this is what LAFE Award will help them achieve. By showcasing successful women entrepreneurs, the younger women will want to achieve more through their stories.
I want also to suggest that the Ikeanumba Africa Magazine, must take this further by also having training programmes for Nigerian women that want to set up their business, to further support them.
I am personally impressed with the openness and transparency with which the voting was done.
