The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has reaffirmed its readiness to deepen insurance market expansion through the provision of digital channels for underwriters to sell products and settle claims.
The Commissioner for Insurance, Sunday Thomas, made this known at a workshop organised for journalists titled ‘Improving Insurance Access through Market Development and Innovation in 2022 and Beyond’ in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
He said the workshop was designed to interact with the media and intimate them with the developments in the insurance industry.
The Commissioner, who was represented by the Deputy Commissioner, Technical, Sabiu Abubakar, said the event aimed to correct negative impressions about the insurance industry.
In his paper presentation, the Directorate, Inspectorate, NAICOM, Pius Agboola, said the rationale behind risk-based supervision (RBS) was identifying early risks firms might be having and acting on them promptly, properly applying effective intervention mechanism.
Agboola, who described NAICOM as Africa’s leading regulator in RBS, noted that the regulator’s method of assessing firms involved studying. Others, he said, involved identifying the risk that could be harmful to the company, assessing the ability of the management to control the risk, assessing if the firm has sufficient earnings, capital and capacity to minimise the overall net risk and rating the company while proffering solutions.
Speaking also Head, Information Technology, Abiodun Aribike, said insurance penetration had covered two per cent of Nigerian adults and maintained growth of 0.88 per cent as at 2021.
Aribike said insurance companies need to do more to expand their reach.
According to him, data remain key to improving the revenue generation.
He stressed the need for insurance companies to improve their automation and optimise their business processes without compromising efficiency, quality and response time.
“Technology and data go together; data is the new and lifeblood of the digital age, it can be used massively for decision-making across the insurance value chain and ecosystem and product development,” he said.
On providing customer experiences, he added that the digital age has increased customers’ expectations, hence, it was time to view business from Customers’ points of view.
Also speaking at the same event, Director of Supervision, Barineke Thompson said that the hallmark of a stable and efficient financial system is its ability to fulfill its key economic functions at all times.
