‘How to raise insurance’s relevance, adoption to drive policy update’

Identifying the need to diversify insurance products to meet the needs of every Nigerian will help to increase insurance penetration across the country, the sector’s experts have said.

Besides, they added that helping people to understand that everybody needs insurance to have a secured future should be a compelling message to Nigerians, whether average or below average families, while the operators prepare to honour their obligations.

Speaking to The Guardian over the weekend, the Chief Executive Officer, African Alliance Insurance, Mrs Funmi Omoh, described how the firm has proven its competences in the provision of life assurance services to Nigerians and beyond in the last sixty years.

Omoh stressed the product that attracting more Nigerians to the sector called takaf¬ul, an Islamic faith-based product designed to accommodate Muslim faithful across the country, adding that the so-called Islamic based product has today become a house¬hold insurance product to buy even among non-Muslims.

She said: “Building a lasting legacy means having a string of innovations under your belt. The firm is notably renowned amongst others for being the life insurance company to introduce Takaful in Nigeria”.

According to her, “Takaful, also known as, ethical insurance is based on the principles of mutual co-operation, solidarity, common interest, shared responsibility, joint indemnity and brotherhood against unpredicted risk or catastrophes, in which the participants involved, are expected to contribute genuinely.”

She noted that the impact of Takaful in Nigeria was so great that less than six months into the formal launching of Takaful, an Islamic compliant insurance scheme, Afri¬can Alliance was being inundated with request from within and outside the African continent by those seek¬ing the benefit from the products.

Today, Takaful has grown into one of the most viable business lines in the company so much that it has easily warmed its way into the hearts of non-Muslims alike.

This has been fur¬ther demonstrated in the history of claims settlement. In 2019 alone, the company paid over N9 billion in claims settlement.

Also, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, NSIA Insurance, Ebelechukwu Nwachukwu, in an interview with The Guardian over the weekend, on the challenges of insurance penetration and adoption, said that there is need to identify information and communication technology as the driver of the growth process.

According to her, despite the slow adoption, there is no doubt at all that penetration will increase and the premium will rise also, noting that the industry today, is paying better salary and people are better.

“In my entire career life, insurance people read more than any other profession, dedicated to writing examinations, attending seminars, conferences, and workshops.