An Enduring Legacy in Law and Insurance Defined by Discipline, Professionalism  – THISDAYLIVE

Born into the distinguished OBI Royal Family of the ancient kingdom of Emekuku, Mrs. Ekeoma Esther Ezeibe has built an enduring legacy defined by discipline, professionalism, and service. From her early grounding in law to her emergence as a respected authority in Nigeria’s insurance industry, her journey reflects decades of commitment to excellence, leadership, and knowledge sharing and come May 2027, she would mount the saddle as the first female Chairman of Insurance Brokers’ Association (AIBA). In this interview with Chiemelie Ezeobi, the Managing Director/CEO of Crystal Trust Insurance Brokers Limited and the current President of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), who will clock 60 on Sunday, March 29, shared the pivotal role she has played in shaping policy, mentoring the next generation of professionals, and advancing reforms that have strengthened the industry, while remaining  deeply devoted to faith, philanthropy, and the empowerment of widows and young people

How did your background shape your values and leadership style?

I was born in a family of eight children with me being number 5 and my twin brother being number 6. My beloved father of blessed memory, occupied a leadership position at the Golden Guinea Breweries in Umuahia, Abia State. He was a very kind, loving, caring and God-fearing husband and father. He was also known for being incorruptible. He had a good name and was very well respected. Looking back now, my father was very professional and also knew how not to mix family time with work. He practiced governance as far back as when I was in primary school. My siblings and I watched him chase away people who came to our doorstep and attempted to bring gifts to him so that he would employ or promote them at the Golden Guinea Breweries. He never accepted gifts for doing his job. He was proud of his work and even prouder, of his family. My mother is a retired teacher. She was a great disciplinarian who believed in the mantra: “spare the rod and spoil the child”. She provided the stick while our father provided the carrot as a balance. My parents were deeply religious and we all sat on the same pew with them in the church to worship on Sundays. We also said our morning and evening prayers together, every day. My siblings and I played board games with them and we are very well bonded. The family motto that my parents gave us is, “Nil Desperandum” which  means, “Never Despair”. They taught us that the key to a successful life was through belief in God, education and love for ourselves and country. They taught us that a good name was better than silver and gold.

What my parents taught my siblings and I greatly influenced our lives. They bequeathed the values of honesty, integrity, ethics, speaking the truth no matter whose ox was gored because one could be complicit through inaction which could encourage wrongdoings to fester. They taught us the belief in the philosopher king, Edmund Burke’s assertion that “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”. The values they instilled in us taught me to love my job by giving of my best such that I would be proud of my work since my name would be on it. From what they taught us, I believe that all good things come from God and that one must always fear God in all that one does.

My leadership style is inclusivity with members of the team drawing strength from one another. This way, the team comes out strong because even the weak in the team are pulled along instead of castigating them. This I believe stems from the way my parents taught my siblings and I to do things together including them. This creates very strong bond in the team such that they become result oriented.

What motivated your decision to study law and later, specialise in insurance?

When I was both in the primary and secondary schools, I fell in love with one television programme, I think from the National Television Authority, Benin City, called “The Assizes”. I so admired the courtroom sessions and the advocacies of the lawyers for their clients which I considered powerful. I started dreaming of becoming a lawyer and how I would advocate for my clients in the law courts with powerful oratorial skills and the law.

Moreover, my parents always wished that one of us could be a lawyer although they never pushed anyone of us towards any particular profession. They made our family to be very democratic with them setting the pace.

After I left the Nigerian Law School, I was posted to the Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation (Nigeria Re) for my National Youth Service Corps. I was posted to the Legal Department and that became the beginning of the end of my romance with advocacy for my clients in the law courts but the beginning of a successful career in insurance where as an Insurance broker, I have been advocating for my clients with oratorial skills, law and insurance policy wordings.

So how did your early experience at the Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation under Professor Joe Irukwu, SAN, impact your career trajectory?

When I got to Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation’s Legal Department, I saw that Insurance was full of legal principles. I saw that reinsurance treaties were legal documents that bound reinsurers and their reinsured and we were taught to draft and review them. I saw that insurance and law were inextricably intertwined and as such, one could not separate them.

My excitement was further stirred by my drafting the very first constitution of the Professional Reinsurers’ Association of Nigerian (PRAN); an assignment that was given to me by the then Head of the Legal Department of Nigeria Re, Mr. Sylvester Unigwe. He was later to tell me that my draft was approved by the newly formed reinsurers association and was passed as their constitution. I am not sure if it is what PRAN still uses as their constitution till date. It was my first major achievement and I was so proud of myself as a Youth Corper.

My second major achievement was being among those that proof read some of the books written and published by Mr. Insurance, the iconic Prof. Joe Irukwu, SAN, who was the first Managing Director/CEO of Nigeria Re. He was quite a prolific writer majorly on insurance. Because there were no computers then but typewriters, proof reading was done manually. One had to read the entire book while using pencil to mark any typographical error. My young mind was thus enriched by the subject of insurance and how as a lawyer, I could successfully combine the two in order to have two professions. It was easy for me to know that the combination of the two professions worked well with Prof. Irukwu himself being an accomplished lawyer before getting into the insurance profession where he made a name for himself and carved a future for professionals like me and others.

Thus, it was not surprising that after I was offered a job with the Nigeria Re at the end of my Youth Service, even though I had also been offered jobs with a reputable law firm and one of the then big banks, I pitched my tent with Nigeria Re. This marked the beginning of my career in insurance.

Can you share what key milestones marked your transition from legal practice into a distinguished insurance career?

I had actually shared some of these key milestones. The first being posted to the Nigeria Re for my primary assignment during my National Youth Corps Service. The second being posted to its Legal Department where I discovered that Law and Insurance were intertwined. The third being my drafting of the constitution for the Professional Reinsurers’Association of Nigeria during my Youth Service. The fourth and the major one being the proof reading of some of the published works of my then Managing Director/CEO in Nigeria Re, Prof. Joe Irukwu, SAN. There was also a fifth one, being that my eldest sister, Chigozie was stoutly behind my career choice and my second elder sister, Winnie, was already working with an insurance company some few years before then. These are two very influential and respectable women in my life apart from our lovely mother. The sixth and final one being that Nigeria Re offered me a job just as my youth service was winding up where I ended up not only working as a full time staff in the Legal Department but also in the Technical Department therefore delving fully into core reinsurance work. Although from the Technical Department of Nigeria Re, I was to move back to corporate law by being Company Secretary/Legal Adviser of Liberty Assurance Company Limited and Industrial & General Insurance Company Limited before I ended up being an insurance broker.

What is the significance of your emergence as the first female Vice Chairman of the African Insurance Brokers’ Association (AIBA)?

It is a testament that women can hold their own in the professions once they set their mind to being diligent in a manner that conveys confidence to their peers. It is an opportunity that gives me hope that by the grace of God, around May of 2027, I will be mounting the saddle as the first female Chairman of AIBA. As I continue to make history, I realise that it is a call for more impactful service to the continental insurance broking sub-sector.

Given the position you occupy, in what ways have you promoted mentorship and women’s advancement within and outside the insurance profession?

Apart from my private mentorship programme which encompasses, insurance, insurance law and more, I was part of the mentorship programmes of the Professional Insurance Ladies Association (PILA), Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), JCI International and Ocean Ambassadors Foundation. As for the NCRIB, the promotion for mentorship, including women advancement, is of utmost importance to me as it is one of the drivers of my ONE INSURANCE INDUSTRY thrust of office as its 23^rd President and the third (3^rd) female President in the 63-year existence of the NCRIB. My plan which will soon be unfolded is that it becomes one of the greatest give-back to the future leaders of an industry where I have found fame and fortune by the grace of God.

You co-founded Crystal Trust Insurance Brokers Limited and currently serve as its Managing Director/CEO. Can you tell us about the vision behind Crystal Trust and the range of services the company offers?

Crystal Trust is a dream come through for my husband, Azubuike Ezeibe and I. He is equally a lawyer and my learned senior who hitherto worked in an insurance company as their Company Secretary/Legal Adviser and at some point, their Acting Managing Director.

At the time, I was also the Company Secretary/Legal Adviser of another insurance company. We were always over-worked,such that we were not spending enough time together and with our little daughter who would still be asleep by the time we left early in the morning for work and would have gone to bed by the time we came back late from work. We decided that it was better for us to venture out doing our own thing while we were still young enough to absorb any possible shock of a start-up and equally have control of our time. As professionals, we knew that it had to be a company that we would nurture along ethical lines so that it can endure. That was how we co-founded Crystal Trust with me as the pioneer Managing Director/CEO; a position I occupy till date. Crystal Trust is licenced to broker all classes of insurance business.

Crystal Trust has grown under your leadership. What distinguishes your firm in Nigeria’s insurance brokerage space?

Crystal Trust is a highly ethical company that puts the interest of the client above that of other stakeholders. We do not joke with compliance and insurance business is highly regulated.Everyone in our office, including me, does every job. I could run mails if I have to in so far as it advances the satisfaction of our clients. We offer personalised services and are prompt with issues concerning clients. We also offer them sometimes free legal advice as part of value addition. There is no “big man” in Crystal Trust as our staff have a healthy relationship with one another without crossing the lines. We are also big in training and man power development so that, that way, we are on top of our professional game.

What role did you play in the development and eventual passage of the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act, 2025?

Time was in 2016 when the Federal Government set up a Ministerial Committee chaired by Dr. Omogbai-Omo Eboh to review the Insurance Act, 2003 through the Insurance Consolidated Bill, 2016. The Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) under their 18^th President, Mr. Emmanuel Okunoren set up an ad-hoc committee of the Council to go through the Bill and come up with submissionson behalf of the Council. I was named a member of that committee. We continued working on the Bill up until when the 19^th President of the NCRIB, Mr. Shola Tinubu took over as President and he was also a member of the Committee under the previous President. At the time, I was the Chairman of the Legal Committee of the NCRIB and he then also appointed me the Chairman of the ad-hoc committee on the same Bill until 2019 when a new administration took over the governance of the country and thus ended the work of that 2016 and later, 2018 Insurance Consolidated Bills which wereall ministerial Bills.

In 2020, the then Chairman, House Committee on Insurance and Actuarial Matters, Hon. Darlington Nwokocha (as he then was), sponsored the Consolidated Insurance Bill 2020 as a private member’s Bill. The President of the NCRIB then, Dr.(Mrs.) Bola Onigbogi (the 20^th President) retained me as the Chairman of that ad-hoc committee and also Chairman of the Legal Committee of the Council and I led the NCRIB team in the review of the Bill, production of our position and its submission, the defence of our submission at all the stakeholders’ engagement sessions, public hearing and follow-up sessions. I continued to be the Chairman of both committees under the 21^st President of the Council, Mr. Rotimi Edu. Unfortunately, by the time the 9^th National Assembly wound up their tenure under President Muhammadu Buhari, the Bill was not signed.

Luckily, in 2024 under the 10^th Assembly, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Matters, Senator Adetokunbo Abiru, sponsored the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Bill, 2024 as a private member’s Bill. This was under the leadership of the 22^nd President of the NCRIB, Prince Babatunde Oguntade. He appointed me the Chairman of the Council’s ad-hoc Committee on the new Bill.My committee went through the same trajectory as others until the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act, 2025 was signed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR.

Given the years spent in this sector, what would you say you have contributed to professional development within the NCRIB through your various committee roles and leadership positions?

At the NCRIB, it is now 14 years since I started serving as a Governing Board member and served in Events Organising for 3 years with 2 years as the Chairman, Charter Implementation for 13 years, Legal Committee for 13 years with 7 years as its Chairman, Government Liaison for 8 years, Investigation Panel for 11 years with 4 years as its Vice Chairman, Membership & Registration for 10 years with 2 years as the Chairman, Chairman, Micro Insurance & Takaful for 4 years, Election Screening Committee for 3 years, Chairman, NAICOM Help Desk/Help Desk for 8 years, Deputy Chairman, Audit Committee for 2 years, Finance & General Purpose Committee for 4 years with 2 years as the Vice Chairman, Management Committee for 7 years. I was equally the Honorary Treasurer for 2 years from 2017 to 2019, Vice President for 2 years from 2021 to 2023 and its DeputyPresident for 2 years from 2023 to 2025 from which I became the current President.

I would say that I have contributed to professional development through these various committee roles and leadership positions. I can therefore humbly say that I have been part of the success of the tenures of some successive Past Presidents of our Council. This is also exemplified by my role on behalf of the Council on what culminated into the Nigeria Insurance Industry Reform Act, 2025.

We ensured that only fit and proper persons were admitted into the corporate membership of our Council before they were recommended to our regulator, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), to grant them operating licenses in addition to fulfilling other eligibility requirements by NAICOM.

We also strengthened the legal adherence by the Council/its members and also protected them from any untoward legal enforcement where necessary.

The NCRIB is very structured and is perhaps the most structured among all the operators’ arms in the insurance industry. I am happy to state that I contributed my quota towards achieving and sustaining this.

Most probably, my achievements in the service of the NCRIBpropelled our regulator, National Insurance Commission, to appoint me in May 2022, as the Chairperson of the NigerianInsurance Industry Committee on African Continental Free Trade Area (NII-AfCFTA Committee) and re-affirmed the appointment in February 2025; a position, I occupy till date.

As the Deputy President of the NCRIB, I also served as a Governing Board member of the College of Insurance & Financial Management (CIFM) where I served for two (2) years including being the Chairperson of the Infrastructural Development Committee of the Board for one (1) year where I helped with policy formulation and the maintenance/development of the College’s infrastructure.

As the current President, I sit on the Governing Council of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) and that of the West African Insurance Institute (WAII), Banjul, The Gambia. These make me to be part of the policy formulation and implementation of these great institutes.

You have delivered over forty (40) pro bono lectures across several professional platforms. Where does your passion for impacting knowledge about insurance come from?

The passion is inborn in me. My mother is a retired teacher and I am sure her great work in moulding young minds must have influenced my siblings and I as those of us that are not professional teachers, also do some form of teaching.

It gives me fulfilment when I impart knowledge. It gives meunquantifiable fulfilment when I give it freely. I have stayed for thirty-seven (37) years in this industry and received, guidance and teachings from very committed bosses. These helped in shaping my professional life. I would be a failure if I failed to give back. So for me, it is more than a commitment.

As an award-winning lecturer on Marine Insurance and a mentor across multiple institutions, what gives you the greatest fulfilment when teaching and mentoring?

What gives me the greatest fulfilment is that I am giving out that, which I can never take away from the recipients. This is what imparting of knowledge to people and mentorship is.

Beyond your professional commitments, you are deeply involved in supporting widows. What specifically do you do to empower widows and help them nurture their children toward self-reliance?

I do this under the auspices of the Mothers’ Union and Women’s Guild of St. George’s Cathedral, Isiala NgwaDiocese of the Anglican Communion in Abia State. They have a robust and structured platform where the wife of the Bishop is the President and has a great passion for this work. Because her passion for this Ministry runs deep, it is infectious. These are widows that are not necessarily of the Anglican Communion denomination. That is the beauty of it because God’s face is one. Once you are verified as a widow that is genuinely in need, it does not matter what your religious persuasion is. Perhaps, this is what makes it more attractive for me. That Ministry has built houses for some, paid school fees for some of their children, bought wrappers and food for the women and nurtured them into being  entrepreneurs. The Ministry teaches them how to catch fish and not merely giving them fish to eat.

You have received numerous recognitions locally and internationally. Which awards stand out most to you, and what do you believe set you apart for those honours?

The awards that I have received that stand out most for me are the Rotary Club of Aba, Abia State Insurer of the Year on 19^th August, 2003, Nigerian Chamber of Shipping recognition for Commitment to Teaching on 11^th December, 2012, named as one of the Female Trailblazers of the African InsuranceIndustry at the 46^th Conference of the African Insurance Organisation (AIO), Johannesburg, South Africa, May 2019,Peninscope Award of Honour In Recognition of her Tremendous Contribution to the Cause of NCRIB on 12^thDecember, 2019, One of the recipients of the award AIO-PILA Top 50 Women in Insurance in Africa at the 50^thAnniversary Ceremony of the African Insurance Organization (AIO) at its 48^th Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, on 27^th June 2022, Professional Insurance Ladies’ Association (PILA) 50^thAnniversary Special Award for Excellence in Lagos, Nigeria on 21^st June, 2023, Lifetime Member, Professional Insurance Ladies’ Association (PILA) in Lagos, Nigeria on 27^th July, 2023 and Ocean Ambassadors Foundation award as OAF Grand Ambassador on 27^th November, 2023.

I believe that what set me apart for these honours are God’s grace and commitment to, and passion for whatever task that comes my way. I know that another reason that hascontributed to this is the amazing support I have been receiving over the years by my dear husband who has been my greatest cheerleader. Because of our society, I know some women who never tapped into their full potentials as they didn’t receive the necessary support from their husbands. I therefore remain grateful to him, our children, grandchildren, my 94-year old mother and siblings for the joy and peace of mind that they bring.