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From Uche Usim, Abuja
Barring unforeseen circumstances of pandemic proportions, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has projected the insurance industry Gross Premium Income (GPI) to grow from N630 billion in 2021 to N6 trillion by 2030.
The insurance sector regulator said the projection rides on the crest of carefully-tailored initiatives meant to stimulate growth in the sector.
The Head, Corporate Communications & Market Development, NAICOM, ‘Rasaaq ‘Salami, made the disclosure in a workshop paper entitled: ‘NAICOM’s Market Development Initiatives: The Journey so Far’, which he delivered at a NAICOM sponsored seminar 2022 Retreat for Financial Journalists held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom, State at the weekend.
According to him, aside from eyeing to drive GPI to N6 trillion by 2030, NAICOM would deepen the use of insurance as a strategic tool for stimulating growth in other facets of the economy and ultimately generate funds for the government for project development at the Federal and State levels.
He added that the initiative empties into creating over 250,000 new jobs and hundreds of thousands of indirect jobs.
Salami further revealed that the structures being put in place by NAICOM would rev up insurance consumer trust and confidence, boost the insurance sector’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 0.4 per cent to over 3.0 per cent and lower the insurance gap from 94 per cent to 70 per cent.
He said market development remains capital intensive and as such needs a huge capital injection to sustain it.
He however assured that NAICOM would deepen its stakeholder collaboration to develop strategic, sustainable and implementable initiatives for boosting insurance penetration to enable optimal contribution to the Nigerian economy.
He further explained 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, were 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 machinery 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 said four Takaful insurance companies and six Microinsurance companies have been identified and licensed to transact businesses in Nigeria, adding that the processing of the other four Microinsurance and three Takaful applications were at various approval stages. He also said there was a collaboration and written approval of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to partner with the Commission on its enforcement of compulsory insurances across the country; sensitisation of Directors and Insurance Desk Officers of MDAs, Joint committees established with Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory FCT (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 noted that the licensing & authorization module of NAICOM Portal which has been completed and deployed; commenced development of the Supervisory Returns Phase of the Portal and launched the Insurtech accelerator platform – Bimalab Nigeria project on 9th February 2022 in partnership with Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Africa.
Earlier in his remarks, the Commissioner for Insurance, Mr Sunday Thomas, said the Commission will commence ranking insurance firms based on the number of claims received and settled annually and will be published for consumer’s perusal.
He regretted that though the industry was doing well in huge claims payments, the activities of some of the operators remained a challenge.
‘Claims payment has always been one aspect the industry is battling to balance.
‘We all agree that we cannot claim ignorance of the fact that the industry is paying huge claims out there even though activities of few amongst the operators is jeopardising the efforts of the majority.
‘We had before now agreed to start ranking companies on the number of claims received and settled on an annual basis and we intend to publish such ranking for the insurance consumers.
‘It is always an issue that puts the entire industry on the edge”, he said.
Thomas, however, assured that NAICOM was working tirelessly to change the narrative.
‘The Commission is doing all it can to see that the non-settlement of claims is brought to its barest minimum in the sector,’ he stated.
He added that the Commission has been implementing various market developmental initiatives to lift the insurance sector to a global standard through Risk Based Supervision Framework; Encourage investment in digital capabilities and automation like launching of NAICOM portal, the launch of the Bimalab Project on the 9th of February, 2021; Enforcement of the compulsory insurance products in Nigeria – via a partnership with agencies and states, among others.
