NAICOM licenses new underwriters to enhance financial inclusion

The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) said eight micro-insurers and four takaful companies have been licensed to bridge the gap in the insurance industry.

The Commissioner for Insurance, Sunday Thomas, said this at the 2023 edition of the Fintech Conference, themed, ‘Imperative of Fintech in Promoting Financial Inclusion in Nigeria’ held in Lagos.

Thomas, who was represented by the Deputy Director, of NAICOM, Ajibola Bankole, noted that financial inclusion is the state where all working-age adults have effective access to credit, savings, payments and insurance from formal providers.

Bankole noted that the commission has also released the Bancassurance and the Web Aggregator Guidelines, which have attracted several applicants with some licensed while many are still undergoing review.

According to him, the new development will aid effective access, convenient and responsible service delivery at a cost affordable to the consumer and sustainable for the provider.

He explained that financial inclusion has assumed a critical development policy priority in Nigeria with the creation of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS), which was aimed at reducing the exclusion gap to 20 per cent at the end of 2020.

Bankole said data provided by EFInA from its two yearly surveys on access to financial services revealed that those financially excluded have reduced from 52.2 per cent (45.5 million) in 2008 to 36 per cent (38 million) in 2020.

“This simply means we may not reach the NFIS target until 2030,” he said.

He noted that as a subset of the financial services sector, the insurance industry considers technology a key driver for market development.

“It is in furtherance of this that the commission has invested in automating its processes as well as facilitated the space for financial inclusion growth in the industry. This is to accelerate the insur-tech ecosystem.

“We live in a dynamic age, where the application of technology does not only enhance businesses for profit maximisation but also now serves as a disruptor to existing business models and technology as a disruptor,” he said.