A former Executive Director of AXA Mansard, Rashidat Adebisi, has launched a strategic initiative tagged “The Re-Architecture Project” aimed at aligning Nigeria’s insurance and financial systems with the Federal Government’s $1 trillion economy target.
Rashidat Adebisi
Adebisi, who had a 21-year career in institutional finance, disclosed this while speaking with newsmen in Lagos.
She described the current moment under the Nigeria Insurance Industry Reform Act 2025 (NIIRA 2025) as a watershed for the insurance industry, stressing that achieving a trillion-dollar economy would require more than capital injection.
According to her, it demands a fundamental re-architecture of how formal financial systems engage with the informal economy, which accounts for more than 60 per cent of employment across Africa.
Adebisi said the project reframes insurance from being viewed merely as a transactional product to becoming a core pillar of macro-economic resilience.
“Insurance is the net that allows a nation to jump higher,” she said, noting that each decimal point in a financial model represents businesses stabilised and futures secured.
She observed that insurance penetration remains below three per cent in many African markets, describing the protection gap as a major structural weakness.
The former executive said Nigeria’s challenge was not necessarily capital deficiency, but the absence of what she termed “invisible infrastructure” — trust, access and regulatory clarity.
She noted that NIIRA 2025 should be seen as structural reinforcement rather than regulatory friction, citing its emphasis on capital recalibration, strengthened governance and consumer protection as critical to building institutional discipline.
She added that compliance under the new regime should be viewed as a competitive advantage rather than a burden.
“Those who view compliance as a burden will struggle; those who see it as a competitive advantage will thrive,” she said, identifying strategic policy fluency as a core leadership competency for the next decade.
A key pillar of the initiative, she said, is “Engineering Inclusive Ecosystems,” exemplified by the FileAm App, designed to reposition tax compliance as a digital utility for SMEs and informal entrepreneurs.
She explained that the platform integrates informal operators into formal digital tax systems, insurance coverage and credit ecosystems, enabling them to build verifiable financial identities.
By converting compliance records into credit history and subsequently into capital access, the initiative seeks to establish a pipeline for sustainable and intergenerational wealth creation.
Adebisi said her blueprint for the next decade is guided by three principles: data-aware systems, policy-conscious leadership and Africa-focused innovation.
She urged industry leaders and policymakers to move beyond incremental reforms and embrace interoperable ecosystems capable of sustaining long-term growth.
“The future of finance in Africa will not be inherited. It will be architected. It is our turn to build,” she said.
