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Chuks Udo Okonta
The need for a robust awareness campaign on insurance, that should be encompassing has once again been revealed with the story of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of an insurance firm who knew about deferred annuity plan just two years to his retirement.
According to the story told by an insurance marketer, she sold deferred annuity retirement plan to a member of staff of an insurance company and requested for a referral to enable her get more clients.
She told Inspenonline that she was shocked when the client referred her to his chief executive officer.
“Having sold a deferred annuity plan to a colleague who also is an insurer, I pleaded that he should refer some of his colleagues to patronise the product.
“I was shocked when he said I should go and market the product to his chief executive officer/managing director. I then reached to the chief executive officer and had an appointment with him.
“It was during our meeting that he told me, he has just two years to retire and needed a plan for himself and his wife,” the marketer said.
This scenario has showed that insurance awareness is not just for people aside insurance industry as there are many people working in the industry that need to have knowledge of both life and non life insurance products.
Worried about the low level of insurance awareness amongst Nigerians, insurers inclusive, an expert has implored the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) to partner all insurance practitioners to develop robust insurance awareness template.
The expert who measures more on retirement called on NAICOM to task insurance firms to encourage their employees to voluntarily embrace deferred annuity to support contributions made into the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) geared toward their retirement.
According to the expert, voluntary contributions on deferred annuity would not only impact the contributors, but also the industry as it would help increase insurance fund assets.
Head, Corporate Communication, Polaris Bank Limited and President, Association of Corporate & Marketing Communications Professionals in Banks (ACAMB), Rasheed Bolarinwa, on how to improve insurance education, called for the creation of a dedicated jointly owned media vehicle by all stakeholders in the nation’s insurance industry that would serve as news agency on insurance content which would be shared with other media houses.
“There is a need for a deliberate collaborative campaign for national awareness about the importance of insurance.
“A dedicated jointly owned media vehicle should be created by all stakeholders to serve as a news agency on insurance content shared with other media houses.
“Regulatory bodies in the Nigerian insurance industry are expected to partner the Nigerian media industry towards creating a diverse and inclusive newsroom; that has content development and coverage strategy that builds audience trust in insurance and provides for a better representation of different societies,” he posited.
