GNI tasks Nigerians on insurance culture

Great Nigeria Insurance Plc has called on Nigerians to adopt insurance culture than ever before.The firm’s advice is coming on the heels of the various incessant cases of road accidents across the country; collapse of buildings especially those under construction, fire outrage and other eventualities, which have destroyed properties worth millions of Naira.

Speaking at a press briefing with journalists, held at the Head Office, in Lagos, the Chief Technical Officer of the company, Folusho Alliyu, said this is the time Nigerians need to consciously educate themselves on the benefits they are bound to derive in taking up an insurance policy.

According to him, there are various insurance products that have been designed to protect lives and properties, adding that, the most essential thing is for the insuring public to willingly open their minds in accepting the fact that insurance is a very important aspect of their lives.

“Nigerians have waited too long in recognizing and accepting the reality that without insurance, one is like building a House without a foundation and in no time, it could come crashing; and when that happens, you will have to start from the scratch again with even more funds than you initially expended,” he stated.

He said that insurance gives you the promise of a safe and comfortable future. The earlier we disabuse our minds of the old notion that insurance does not work, the better it will be for all of us.

Also, the DGM/Head of Marketing and Business Development of the underwriting firm, Toyin Alonge, reiterated low patronage of insurance in the country to the fact that Nigerians lack the basic insurance knowledge to fully appreciate the benefits inherent in it.

According to him, “there’s a willing suspension of acquiring basic knowledge about insurance products and how it works by majority of Nigerians which must be dispelled.” “Experience has shown that an individual who took out one policy or the other in the past but with awry experience along the line was largely due to the inability of perusing their insurance contract or policy as the case may be. Such an individual is capable of giving wrong information or misrepresentation of ideas to would-be customers out there that would have taken one policy or the other,’ he said.

In the same vein, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mrs. Cecilia O. Osipitan equally mentioned that low awareness remains one of the major reasons why a very large percentage of the Nigerian populace is not insuring, as they ought to considering the population and the level of commercial activities in the country.

She also emphasized the need to positively influence the perception of the insuring public to engender greater patronage as the negative notion that most people have against this very noble profession is adversely affecting the performance of the industry.

She charged practitioners of the business to ensure the effective sensitization of people around them on the need to embrace insurance as an integral part of their lives because we all are confronted with different kinds of risk as we go about our daily businesses.