NCRIB honours industry veterans, Awogboro, Koguna at second edition of ‘Celebrating Our Heroes’
L-R: The Executive Secretary/CEO, The Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers, Mr. Tope Adaramola; Past President, Mr. Shola Tinubu; Past President, Prince Feyisayo Soyewo; President, Mrs. Ekeoma Ezeibe; Representative of Awardee, Mr. Koguna; Managing Director, Koguna Babura Insurance Brokers, Mr. Suleiman Koguna; Past President, Asiwaju Michael Olawale-Cole and Immediate Past President, Prince Babatunde A. Oguntade at the presentation of the award to the family of Late Alhaji Mohammed Hassan Koguna at the second edition of Celebrating Our Heroes in Lagos
Nike Popoola
The Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) has celebrated the enduring legacies of two of its most distinguished figures at the second edition of its “Celebrating Our Heroes” event, conferring the Living Hero Award on Prince Francis Oluwole Awogboro and the Posthumous Hero Award on the late Alhaji (Dr) Mohammed Hassan Koguna.
The ceremony, which drew industry leaders, regulators and stakeholders, underscored the Council’s commitment to recognising pioneers who shaped modern insurance broking in Nigeria through professionalism, resilience and institutional building.
Prince Francis Awogboro, the widely respected founder of Ark Insurance Brokers Limited and a long-standing pillar of the Lagos insurance community, received the Living Hero Award while Alhaji Mohammed Hassan Koguna, founder of Koguna Babura Insurance Brokers Limited and a Past President of the Council, who passed away in late 2025 at the age of 87, was posthumously honoured for his extensive contributions.
In a fireside chat that formed a highlight of the programme, the veteran practitioner, Prince Awogboro took the audience down memory lane, recounting the formidable challenges of establishing and nurturing a new brokerage firm in an earlier, more difficult era of the industry.
He spoke of navigating regulatory hurdles, building client trust from the ground up, and sustaining professional standards amid economic and operational obstacles that tested the resolve of early entrepreneurs in the sector.
The NCRIB President, Mrs Ekeoma Ezeibe, highlighted the qualities that earned both men the recognition. She praised Awogboro’s quiet determination, integrity and decades-long contribution to elevating brokerage practice, noting that his career exemplifies the values of excellence, perseverance and service that the Council seeks to uphold.
Of the late Alhaji Koguna, she spoke of a towering figure whose leadership left an indelible mark on the profession.
“The second edition of “Celebrating Our Heroes” served both as a moment of reflection on the industry’s foundations and a call to the current generation of practitioners to build on the examples set by the honourees. By recognising living and departed pioneers, the NCRIB reaffirmed its role not only as a professional regulator of brokers but as a custodian of the values and institutional memory that will sustain the good legacies of the heroes”, she noted.
Alhaji Mohammed Hassan Koguna, a former President of the NCRIB, founder and chairman of Koguna Babura Insurance Brokers Limited, and a former chairman of several major companies including Unic Insurance, Costain (West Africa) and Red Star Express, Koguna was widely regarded as one of the industry’s most influential administrators and boardroom leaders.
His career spanned decades of service across insurance, commerce and public life, including roles that strengthened institutional capacity and professional standards.
Representing the Commissioner for Insurance, Mr Olusegun Omosehin, the Deputy Commissioner for Insurance, Technical, Mr. Ekerete Gam-Ikon eulogised the NCRIB for instituting the Heroes series and stressed the imperative of expanding the horizons of the Nigerian insurance industry under the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) 2025.
