From left: Deputy Director/representative of NAICOM; Tosin Bayo-Yusuf, Executive Director/COO, Heirs Life; Ademola Abidogun. Managing Director/CEO, Guinea Insurance Plc; Tope Smart, Chairman of occasion/Chairman, NEM Insurance Plc; Nkechi Naeche Esezobor, Publisher, BusinessToday Nigeria; Johnson Chukwu, keynote speaker and Managing Director/CEO, Cowry Asset Ltd; Idu Okwuosa- Okeahialami, former Managing Director/ CEO, Access Pension Fund Custodian Ltd and Michael Mgbame, founder/Lead Business Intelligence Consultant at Hankali Intel, during the 8th BusinessToday Annual Conference/ Exhibition held recently at the Ballroom of Oriental hotel Victoria Island, Lagos.
Experts said the slow rate of insurance and pension penetration in Nigeria was because insurers and pension fund Operators are relying on manual data that are ineffective and yield low productivity.
They advocated for the use of clean data and adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to stimulate growth in the two sectors.
They also advised Insurers and Pension Fund Operators that while adopting AI in their operations, they should be conscious of issues of data protection and privacy.
The experts urged insurance and pension fund operators to take advantage of data available in silos across different platforms for the use of the sectors.
Speaking during the panel discussion at the 8th edition of BusinessToday national conference in Lagos recently, The Executive Director/COO, Heirs Life, Tosin Bayo Yusuf, harped on the importance of clean data for the growth of the two sectors.
“Data is key, there is need to have clean data. The data that the two sectors have generated manually over time are still useful. These data can be processed by data experts and thereafter, would be ready for use. For instance, just like in advanced countries, if you have a history of lodging claims, the premium you pay at the next renewal would be higher than others, but they are able to do that with AI. So, with artificial intelligence, risk would be appropriately priced,” she pointed out.
In her contribution, Pension Consultant, Idu Okwuosa-Okeahialam, listed the advantages of AI for the both industry.
She said AI has the ability to limit or mitigate risk occurrence, ehhances insurance and pension penetration and competitiveness, breeds efficiency and cost reduction, disclosing that AI remains the only medium to get the millennials on insurance platform.
In his part, the managing director/CEO, Guinea Insurance Plc, Ademola Abidogun, on his part, said, in as much as artificial intelligence is good for promotion of insurance and pension businesses, the challenge lies in data protection.
“AI helps profile customers and assist in carving out product that suits the needs of each customer, relying on their data to know what each customer wants at any point in time.
“Yet, as good as AI is, there is the issues of data protection and privacy. This is critical so that sensitive information about a customer is not abused by data harvesters, thereby, tramping on his or her privacy.
“There should be regulation on data that can be harvested for use and on some sensitive information, there should be consent before those information can be used. Stakeholders should come together to address this, especially, in the era of cyber crime and attacks,” he stated.
In his contribution at the panel session, the founder, Hankali Intel, Mr. Mgbame Michael, disclosed that there are data available in silos across different platforms.
He urged insurance and pension operators to harvest these data for the use of the sectors, saying, this will stimulate huge growth in adoption and penetration of insurance and pension products.
In his conclusion to round up the panel session, the Chairman of the occasion who is also the Chairman of NEM Insurance Plc, Tope Smart who moderated the panel session, said he sees AI as a game changer in both insurance and pension sectors.
He said “With AI, we can achieve a lot and intervene in several areas which will include customer satisfaction, engagement, risk management and assessment and, in pension he said there would upgrades in the service of retirement benefits, life expectancy and an avalanche of areas. AI intervention is needed in all areas of operations.”
