NAICOM charges insurers on digitalisation

The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has called on insurance operators to step up their digitalisation process and ensure alignment with its portal requirements.

The Commissioner for Insurance and Chief Executive Officer, NAICOM, Sunday Thomas, at a just-concluded Insurance Professionals’ Forum, organised by the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) in Abeokuta, Ogun State, urged insurance companies that are yet to align with its portal requirements to do so as the regulator would not continue to wait forever.

He said the industry was lagging and needs to reassess its business model, re-evaluate its strategy and make the digital agenda a priority.

“If this is not done it will be difficult to deliver on customers’ expectations and new entrants, insurtech firms and leading digital competitors will take advantage of this weakness. It is time for insurers to evolve and do the needful. This will require a different set of skills, culture and operating model,” he said.

Thomas noted that there is no technology age that does not have its own challenges, stressing that there would be constraints such as meeting the demands of the multi-generation customer bases.

He said the commission was eager for a fully digitised industry, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption and the use of digital technologies in the sector.

“To this extent, on September 1, 2021, the NAICOM Portal was successfully launched. To ensure effective and efficient utilisation of the portal, the Commission directed all operators to integrate, connect and upload five years of historical data of all policies issued from January 1, 2016, to NAICOM Portal on or before March 1, 2021,” he stressed.