The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has assented to the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act 2025 (NIIRA 2025) a landmark statute that repeals the Insurance Act of 2003 and sets a new trajectory for the country’s insurance sector. This legislation is a decisive realignment of the regulatory and operational foundations of Nigeria’s insurance industry.
The NIIRA 2025 signals a deliberate policy shift aimed at positioning insurance as one of the pillars of national economic transformation, in line with the Federal Government’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy in the medium term. By modernising the legal framework, embedding global prudential standards, and fostering deeper market participation, the Act is expected to enhance investor confidence, accelerate insurance penetration, and expand the sector’s GDP contribution. However, its transformative potential will depend on the effective resolution of long-standing structural constraints including limited public awareness, inadequate capitalisation, regulatory bottlenecks, and weak claims management practices that have historically limited sectoral growth.