Standard Insurance Consultants Limited (SICL) landed its fourth win as the Insurance Broker of the Year at the 12th annual edition of the internationally acclaimed Banks and Financial Institutions (BAFI) Awards.
Hosted by BusinessDay, this year’s glamorous awards gala was held on October 25 2024 at the Lagos Continental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.
As in previous years, the BAFI Awards, which are considered the gold standard of recognition for firms and professionals in the financial services industry, had in attendance CEOs, C-suite executives, industry captains, leaders of professional associations, top government officials, and traditional rulers.
May the best firm win
According to BusinessDay, judges applied three general criteria in selecting the winner of the Insurance Broker of the Year Award.
They were seeking a broker that had distinguished itself by applying the most creative approaches to serve clients better, deepening collaboration with insurers to get the best outcomes for clients and responding to a client’s major loss in the last 12 months by securing prompt payment of insurance claims.
Off of the back of these general criteria, BusinessDay scored the six shortlisted brokers for the award on eleven bases. These were year-on-year growth in clients, and new business; overall approach to business development and lead generation; quality of relationship management and client service; client retention; innovation in product offerings; staff development and retention over the last 12 months, including new hires, promotions, professional courses taken, industry certifications received; brand and media visibility; financial performance; business expansion including the opening of new branches and international growth; digitalization; good standing with the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), the industry regulator; and active participation in the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB).
By all means, the selection process was rigorous and transparent.
Sapling to Iroko tree
Acceptance speech by Prof. Ahmed bin Salawudeen, Founder/CEO Standard Insurance Consultants Limited
For Prof. Ahmed Salawudeen, the firm’s founder, it was a befitting crown as he plots the company’s next growth phase. In June, SICL marked its 44th anniversary.
Unavoidably absent this year, he delivered his acceptance speech over video call.
SICL has witnessed whirlwind growth in recent years, powered by international expansion into Ghana, Indonesia, and the UAE.
At the same time, the firm has consolidated its franchise in Nigeria by signing on new clients, hiring experienced managerial talent, expanding its national network of brokers, and investing in a robust digital platform that promises to achieve insurance inclusion for uninsured Nigerians and make purchase of insurance plans seamless.
Fondly called “Mr. As At When Due” by some insurance insiders, Salawudeen has built the firm’s reputation on diligent screening of the insurance companies he places his clients’ risks.
Beginning from a single-room office in Ibadan in 1980, he established the firm on its current pedestal through organic growth and prudent husbanding of human and material resources.
Several independent ratings consistently include SICL among the top 3 firms in Nigeria for insurance solutions in Oil & Gas, Aviation & Space, Special Risks (Kidnapping & Ransom), Marine Hull Cargo, Protection and Indemnity, Construction/Operational, Agriculture, and Life and Pension.
Today, Salawudeen sits atop the Standard Group of Companies, a multinational holding company with interests in insurance, real estate, tech, agribusiness, pharmaceuticals and renewable energy.
Adapt but never compromise
Early in his career, while many other insurance intermediaries became hostage to underwriters to attract business, Salawudeen took the opposite view that his loyalty lay with clients. Such contrarian thinking has paid off in spades.
At each fork on the road of SICL’s four-decade journey, Salawudeen has had to make hard choices. Some were unpopular. Not a few involved short-term pain. Others imposed the loss of significant revenues and end of relationships. His thinking was that so long as his values as a Muslim and professional were at peace, he would never look back after making up his mind.
These days he is not as actively involved in the day-to-day management of SICL as he was even just five years ago. Instead, he sets the strategic direction and provides counsel to a team of senior executives charged with tactical execution at its ultramodern office in the highbrow Lekki district.
Diligence is the key to honour
For three consecutive years, in 2017, 2018 and 2019, Professor Salawudeen was honoured by the World Confederation of Businesses (WORLDCOB), with the “World Leader Businessperson” Award, along with other distinguished international personalities.
In 2022, he was conferred with an honorary Professorship by the Academic Union Oxford for “his role in uplifting professional and ethical standards in broker/insurer relationships, support for continuous professional development programs in insurance, grooming of generations of insurance leaders, and championing of the economic role that risk-carriers play in national prosperity.”
Lately, there has been a spike in demand for Salawudeen as a speaker at industry and business conferences. In September, he was a keynote speaker at the Canada-Nigeria Business and Investment Summit in Toronto.
A month earlier, he was the guest speaker at the Nigeria-Indonesia Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Jakarta.
On the International Day of Non-Violence, celebrated universally on October 2, he was recognised for his contributions in support of the values of Mahatma Gandhi by the Humans for Humans initiative under the auspices of Rizwan Adatia, an Indian philanthropist and the Emirates Scholar Center for Research and Studies (ESRC).
Salawudeen is a graduate of the College of Insurance, Surbiton, Surrey, England. He qualified as a Chartered Insurance Practitioner in 1976. He is an Associate Member of the Chartered Insurance Institute of London. He holds Fellowships of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), Commonwealth Academy of Leadership and Management, and Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB). He holds a Doctor of Management degree with Specialism in Insurance from the Commonwealth University, Belize.
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