Founding Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Lectern Insurance Brokers Limited, Prince Babatunde Oguntade, who recently emerged winner of the 2025 Champion Newspapers’ Insurance Personality of the Year have called on government at all levels to factor the culture of insurance into their projects and programmes saying that insurance mechanism remains the best form of providing security and preservation of national assets.
Prince Oguntade said that with the appropriate procurement of insurance policies for the various degrees of government activities including the pension scheme of workers, the country will function better. He praised the Lagos State government as the most insurance friendly government in the country to the extent that most projects and programmes of the state including vehicles and buildings are under effective insurance. He described an effective insurance policy to be the one for which premiums and paid when and as due.
Chief Executive Officer to Lectern Insurance Brokers Limited spoke in Lagos when he received in audience the management team of Champion Newspapers Limited who paid him a courtesy visit during which he was officially presented with the letter which confirmed him as winner of 2025 Champion Newspapers’ Insurance Personality of the Year award winner.
According to him, the government should encourage the culture of insurance by leading by example, to ensure that this thing is not only talk, but walk the talk.
“If government will at least protect its own assets and live by good example. Government must show good faith by ensuring that it has done so in terms of its own properties, most of the government vehicles that you see are not insured.
“I make bold to say, for every class of insurance, Lagos is there for every kind of arrangement, they have their pension scheme apart. They have the Lagos State Pension Commission.
“They have the group life thing. It is only Lagos state that is working the talk, even federal government is not working the talk, I can tell you, the group life insurance scheme for civil servants was instituted for the current year of the fourth in April last year. As I speak, premium has not been paid.
“People have been dying. I saw something on the Facebook a woman was lamenting on the Remembrance Day, the husband was a Naval commander who died in 2010, as we speak, according to her, the scheme had not paid.
“Why did the scheme not pay? It’s not because insurance failed. It’s because government did not pay premium, and the role of government in the place of insurance is huge. Government remains the biggest spender as far as insurance is concerned. So if government pays lip service only to insurance, NIIRA will fail”, he submitted.
Prince Oguntade commended Champion Newspapers for having conducted the award series over the years.
He said that the list of this year’s awardees is made up of worthy individuals and institutions who have proven their mettle in various walks of life. This is even as he maintained that Insurance now should be seen as a way of life.
He described the Champion Newspapers award on him as a great award describing it is a lifetime award.
“I am elated. This is an icing on the cake, particularly having served meritoriously, let me be modest at the NCRIB, and after pausing my career in the last 42-43 years. It is a worthy achievement for me to receive this and I am happy that it is coming at this time,” he said.
Speaking on the performance of the Insurance sector, he said there is a lot to celebrate in insurance, particularly with the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) 2025
Oguntade said, “We have a lot to talk about. We have success stories to talk about. The recognition for insurance has changed. You know, when we had Covid and the insurance industry was able to rise to the occasion by providing cover for health workers to the tune of 1 billion.
“This is something that never happened in history of Nigeria, and the President of the nation realized for the first time that there is really an insurance industry. And going further, you realize that there have been calamitous claims, tragedies that the insurance industry has stood up to to cover.
“Recently, we have the promulgation of the Insurance Act Nigeria, Insurance Reform Act 2025, NIIRA that has started turning into naira. So I will not tell you that the industry is not growing.
On premium income, he said, “I can tell you, if we work as seriously and we are able to pursue and create the necessary awareness, we should be able to cross 2 trillion within the next two years, because you find out that you now have 13 composite, 13 insurances that speak to livelihood, that speak to sustenance, that speak to well being, that speak to the fact that people will realize the economic value of their livelihood and the position of sustenance that insurance brings.
Speaking further, he stated that there is still much the government can do, either at the state or federal level.
According to him, the government should encourage the culture of insurance by leading by example, to ensure that this thing is not only talk, but walk the talk.
Prince Babatunde Adeleke Oguntade is the founding Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Lectern Insurance Brokers Limited. A prince from Ilishan Remo, Ogun State, South West, Nigeria, he has over four decades of experience in insurance profession.
He is also the immediate past president of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB).His success in his chosen profession- insurance- is that of divine grace and tenacity of purpose. He believes that through thick and thin, he could rise to be prominent and influential, hence, burnt the night candles to etch his name in the sand of history as one of the foremost business and insurance executives that the Nigerian Insurance Industry could be proud of.
Oguntade is a cool headed and seasoned Insurance practitioner, a sound broker who has contributed to the Nigerian Insurance Industry for about 42 years consciously with a track record of integrity and candor. These exemplary qualities have earned him many honours and accolades.
Prince Babatunde Adeleke Oguntade was born on Tuesday, June 25, 1963 at Ilishan Remo, Ogun State.
Oguntade started his Primary education at Christian Mission Primary School, Itire Road, Mushin in Lagos at age four having lost his mother at three and had to follow his father to School and got registered.
He proceeded to Mayflower Secondary School, Ikene. However, he could not cope with the pressure and environmental condition due to his fragile nature then; he had to return to Lagos to start his Secondary School Education afresh. Afterwards, Prince Oguntade gained admission into Lagos African Grammar School, Ifako Agege where he completed his O’Level studies.
While waiting for the result of the A’ Level examination, Prince Oguntade was engaged at the National Insurance Corporation of Nigeria (NICON) and that was the beginning of his foray into the world of Insurance. In his quest for knowledge and determination to rise through ranks, he determined to further his education and obtained Advance Diploma in Insurance and Investment from University of Lagos (UNILAG).He then joined Country & City Insurance Brokers Limited where he rose to the level of General Manager/Chief Executive Officer, a firm he was till 2004.
Not satisfied in his thirst for education, he sought admission into Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago Iwoye where he obtained his Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) in Business Administration.
Furthermore, Babatunde obtained his Master in Business Administration (MBA), Insurance & Risk Management from Wisconsin International University, and United State of America. He also attended National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), where he obtained Bachelor of Laws.
After he had garnered outstanding and relevant professional certifications both within and outside Nigeria, Babatunde Oguntade quit paid employment to found Lectern Insurance Brokers Limited, a company that is well known for its transparency, etiquette and professionalism has become a household name in the insurance industry and earned the trust and confidence of the insurance public..
