Ganiyu Musa, NIA Chairman.
BY NKECHI NAECHE-ESEZOBOR–The Nigerian insurance industry will do better if firms put more effort into marketing the newly developed products.
These were the words of Managing Director/CEO, Excel Professional Service Limited, Dr. Oladimeji Alo, at second edition of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria, (CIIN) Business Outlook Seminar, held today at Oriental hotel, Victoria Island.
He gave this charge while delivering a paper titled: “Economic Policies of the Government in 2022: Issues, challenges and Prospects” that these new products needs to gain traction and contribute significantly to revenue and performance of individual companies.
According to him most customers are not aware of these new products and their benefits, adding that more need to be done to enable them understand the products.
He also advised the industry to explore opportunities for collaboration with Fintech companies for the marketing and distribution sector f insurance products, within the ambit of existing regulations for the sector. Given developments, globally insurance companies should also pay more attention to the issue of data privacy.
He said individual companies needs to address the issue of boosting their capital to take care of rising costs and to prepare them to participate in big ticket businesses such as oil and gas and aviation sectors.
He further called for unified approach to addressing the issue of pricing of insurance products in the light of rising inflation.
On industry performance in first quarter of 2022, he said the outcome of EndSARS protest and the claims paid by insurance companies on it, helped in projecting the insurance industry positively in Q1 2022.
He said despite the Nigerian insurance sector growing by 15.68% in Q1 2022 and the global commercial insurance prices rising by 11% in Q1 2022, it was still difficult for insurance firms to increase the prices of their products for a variety of reasons.
He added that the sector began to witness more collaboration with state governments, leading to greater awareness on insurance and its benefits among the populace.
“The insurance sector recorded major investment in technology, both by the regulator and the players. NAICOM has continued to lead the way in developing innovative policies and solutions for addressing the challenges facing the sector.
“The sector also witnessed the development of several innovative products by leading insurance firms, thereby broadening the offerings available to previously insured sectors of the Nigerian economy.
In nominal terms, the contribution of the insurance sector to GDP moved up to 3.80 percent in Q1 compared to 3. 25% in Q4 2021.”
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