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Chuks Udo Okonta
The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) is expecting the insurance industry Gross Premium Income (GPI) to hit N6.0 trillion by year 2030.
The Head, Corporate Communications & Market Development, NAICOM, ‘Rasaaq ‘Salami, said this in a paper entitled: ‘NAICOM’s Market Development Initiatives: The Journey so Far ‘ delivered at the just concluded NAICOM 2022 Retreat for Financial Journalists in Uyo, Akwa Ibom, State.
He noted that NAICOM has put in place structures to promote insurance as a tool for stimulating growth of other sectors and raise funds for project development at the Federal and State levels, so as to create over 250,000 new jobs.
He remarked that the structures would also see to improvement of insurance consumer trust and confidence in the sector, increase insurance contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 0.4 per cent to over 3.0 per cent; lower insurance gap from 94 per cent to 70 per cent and increase Industry Gross Premium Income from N630 billion in 2021 to N6.0 trillion by 2030.
He said market development is a costly affair and requires huge capital to keep going thus, funding is critical, adding that however, NAICOM will continue to work with all stakeholders to develop strategic, sustainable and implementable initiatives for deepening insurance penetration to enable optimal contribution to the Nigerian economy.
‘Salami submitted that various actions to expand the reach or tap into a different segment/unexplored market (Retail end) and, other activities aimed at achieving insurance market development, have been put in place.
According to him, the actions include; Market conduct guideline; bancassurance guideline; Takaful Insurance guideline; Microinsurance guideline; RBS Framework/Own Risk Assessment (ORSA); Nigerian Insurance Industry ICT guideline.
Others are: Guideline on Insurance of Government Assets; Insurance Web Aggregators Operational guideline; establishment of Liaison with target state government – Lagos, Ekiti, Kano, and others; implementation machineries in place; sensitisation of NMSMEs on insurance products and benefits inherent in their consumption – Kano, Abuja, Lagos and insurance education of members of the public at the rudimental level (Sponsorship of radio and TV programmes).
Continuing, he also identified, licensed of four Takaful insurance companies and six Microinsurance companies to transact businesses in Nigeria; processing of other four Microinsurance and three Takaful applications at various approval stages; collaboration and written approval of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to partner the Commission on its enforcement of compulsory insurances across the country; sensitisation of Directors and Insurance Desk Officers of MDAs; Joint committees established with MFCT on one hand and the Federal Ministry of Transport on the other; joint engagements with the Federal and State Fire Services for the commencement of enforcement of Public Building Liability Insurance and interface with the FRSC to strengthen implementation of the compulsory 3rd party motor Insurance
He also went further to identified, licensing & authorization module of NAICOM Portal which has been completed and deployed; commenced development of the Supervisory Returns Phase of the Portal and launched of the Insurtech accelerator platform – Bimalab Nigeria project on 9th February 2022 in partnership with Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Africa.
