Kola Oyeneyin, CEO, Venia Group, owners of insurance revolutionary platform in Nigeria called Myautogenius.com is a speaker and trainer on several platforms and on multiple topics including entrepreneurship, business start-up, career, technology/social media, social and economic Issues, and so on.
Oyeneyin is also a passionate social change advocate and founder/convener of sleeves Up Youth Foundation, a youth advocacy platform for proactive action on good governance, advocacy, education, healthcare and job/wealth creation in Nigeria,
He spoke to peter ugwu on the visions of Myautogenius.com for the Nigerian Insurance sector.

Myautogenius.com
It is a platform where Nigerians can finally browse, click and insure in less than five minutes. You go on the platform, search and buy the right insurance policy for car in less than five minutes and print your policy by yourself.
We will do the rest for you. Of course, we will upload your details on Nigerian Insurance Database (NID) platform to show that you are fully insured; police will not harass you.
So, it is a one-stop shop that from your mobile, desktop and at the comfort of your home or office, you can actually buy insurance.
For example, with 15.5 million cars in Lagos alone and over 14% of cars on Nigerian roads uninsured or driving with fake insurance policies, there has always been a gap to access an insurance intermediary channel that will provide the advantage of convenience, speed and authentic insurance covers in real-time.
We are here to bridge that gap and even do more for the sector’s growth.

Insurance Acceptability and Patronage in Nigeria
We are hoping that the same way internet is penetrating Nigeria, insurance will begin to receive massive acceptability among Nigerians.
About three years ago there were only 10million Nigerians online, today the number has jumped to 65 million.
So, as internet usage grows, because the mobile has become the order of the day, people ability to access anything online continues to increase, so why not insurance.
The idea is that our products and service will be available online for Nigerians to make decisions on what package is best for them and at what price they want it, from which insurance company.

The Three Component Clients
Basically, there are three clients here: the customers/users, the players in the industry and the regulator.
For the customers we want to provide them three things: convenience, access and price. We want to make sure they are able to access insurance policies anytime; they are conveniently doing it and at the right price.
For the insurance companies, we are bringing them a new market. A market of 13.5 million Nigerians who are uninsured and a market of N58 billion lost to fake insurance licence providers.
So, that is what we are bringing a change of attitude, process, access and gain to the players too. To the regulators, we are bringing to them market intelligent.
This can be done through data that will help them shape the industry. This is enables intelligent decisions and policies. We are hoping that as the different stakeholders benefit, it will begin to transform the industry in a short period of time.

#OneGuyLikeThat Message to Tackle Fake Insurance Licensing
Absolutely, there are two things we are tackling. The concept of #OneGuyLikeThat is about a person who sells fake things. It could be fake shoes, phones, in fact, anything.
And when you are asked, ‘where did you buy it from’ the response is usually, ‘Hey, from #OneGuyLikeThat.
When you miss your way and if asked how were able to trace the route, the answer is usually, ‘Well, #OneGuyLikeThat directed me’. Now, we are simply saying that, we are the #OriginalGuys that are replacing the #OneGuyLikeThat.
We are the #OneGeniusLikeThat who is replacing the #OneGuyLikeThat. We are hopeful that Nigerians will begin to believe insurance works and at the right price. So, that is the idea: to change the negative concept associated with the #OneGuyLikeThat to a positive side through a good-guy-like-that. As we provide good service, the opinion will begin to change.
 As time goes one, we will begin to appeal to those who are completely uninsured; that is those who don’t regard insurance as something meant for them.
They believe insurance do not work, full of fakes or it is meant for a particular class of people. With time, such opinion will be overturned.

Buying Insurance In five Minutes, How Possible?
It is very simple. You go on my Autogenius.com and search for code. Put in your email address, and telephone number.
Through a short message system (SMS), there will be a confirmation that you have come on our platform.
Then, you look at the different products; search for the one that suites you. The next thing is for you to put in your car details; you will see the list of insurance companies that provide the services, you can compare their services and features.
After that, select your choice, use either your MasterCard, Verve, Myautogenuis scratch card or mobile money to pay. Instantly, you will print your certificate.

Lack of Confidence in Insurance Industry
This is part of the reasons we launched the first online claim reporting system in Nigeria. Once you have a claim to make, you go on our platform and click on report a claim.
The moment such report is made, automatically, you can see all the cars you bought on MyautoGenius, pick the one you want and it pulls your data, instantly.
The next thing is to type-in what transpired. May be you hit somebody or reverse is the case. As you send it, we immediately generate a copy of the claim report, the insurance company gets a copy of the report, simultaneously, Myautogenuis.com begins to work on your behalf.

Integrating Government Agencies Such As FRSC, Police, VIO, etc
There is a platform called the Nigerian Insurance Database (NID). The Nigeria Police Force, the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), and the Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO), they get their feedback from this database.
The moment we upload on the NID platform, it gets circulated to those agencies integrated on the platform.
What we are guaranteeing users is that the moment you click PAY on our platform, instantly, it uploads on NID on your behalf. Currently, that takes about a-week in the industry (offline).

Myautogenius Resilience
We are resilient enough to be able to handle the Nigerian market. So, hundred and seventy million (170mn) people hitting it at the same time, it will not crash.

Critical Areas for Legislation or Policy Repealing
Well, we can give vivid answer to that in a year time. That is, after we have been able to look at the date critically.
There is a difference embarking on market research, surveys, and executing the real work. We have been able to get into the space. We will understand the industry better: how biased are buyers in their decision making process.
That data will be useful to us. In a year time, when we shall be launching other insurance programmes, because Myautogenius is the first, we are going to launch other products for life assurance, travel, home insurance; then, we can assess and be able to the industry adequately. It is a long process and we are launching in Ghana, Tanzania and Kenya.

Working with Top Six Insurance Companies in Nigeria
There are basically two reasons the industry players are coming together now, unlike before they chose to work independently, enjoying their gains and nursing the wounds separately. They are tired of the fake guys.
 They cannot defeat them. So, if they can see anybody that can help them salvage the market from the hands of the fakers, they will rally around the person.
So, if your enemy is my enemy we are likely to be form alliance to chase the common enemy away. Also, there is an opportunity. It is an opportunity to add value to Nigerians.
We see a real opportunity to add value based on insurance packages they have. We are in a 21th Century, it is a good time we begin to add this value across board. There is no better time to do it than now. 

Myautogenius Point Card
Well, some people have asked if we are thinking of launching a card system to aid the processes. The truth is that we are not launching a premium system.
Like I said, Myautogenius.com point-card; it is used generally to earn points across different service providers.
For instance, Oando marketing is providing Oando Auto Care (OAC). We are also launching, car-pass; when you buy car you earn point or buy fuel from Oando you earn point. Then, you can decide to do whatever you like with your points.

Impact of Internet Penetration
Internet penetration as a factor here, it cannot be ruled out. The more broadband penetrates Nigeria, the better we are closing the gap.
Like I said, about three years ago, only twelve million Nigerians were online, today the figure has risen to sixty-five million. By next year it can even get to 85 million. 
We are hoping that in the nearest future we would have closed the gap, following the fact that, there are more companies and industries leveraging IT to broaden their scopes.