L-R: Chairman, Offices Representative Committee, Pius Karieren; Chairman, Nigerian Insurers Association, Tope Smart; President, Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria, Eddie Efekoha and Director General, Richard Borokini at the event.
BY NKECHI NAECHE-–The President and Chairman of Council of Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) Eddie Efekoha, on Thursday called on professionals in the industry to embrace retail insurance business in order to deepen insurance owner and awareness in the country.
L-R: Director General, Nigerian Insurers Association, Mrs Yetunde Ilori; Abodunrin Roberts of Scib Nigeria Limited and Mrs Mary Adeyanju of Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc at the event.
He disclosed this at the 2018 Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) Offices Representative Committee (ORC) workshop in Lagos, that the retail insurance business has the capacity to turn around the fortune of the industry.
He noted that operators have over the years, abandoned retail market thinking that there is no much income from that sector, forgetting that people within that bracket contribute more to the economy.
He called on insurers to rethink their decision and focus on retail in to boost the industry GDP and contribution to the economy.
He urged participants at the event to be apostles of retail business and should ensure that whatever they acquired from the workshop is shared with others.
Chairman, Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) Tope Smart, said retail business remains the future of the industry. “What we do is to chase the billions, leaving the people at the grassroots,” he said.
He posited that the various targets set to deepen insurance penetration, will not be achieved until operators give the needed attention to retail business.
“Many people do not know about insurance and we are talking of deepening insurance penetration. We cannot achieve this if the market women and others at the grassroots are neglected. If we want to take insurance from where it is to the next level we need to address the issue of retail.”
Also, the Director-General, NIA, Mrs Yetunde Ilori, in a paper entitled, ‘Retail Insurance Distribution Perspectives: Challenges and Opportunities’, urged operators to evolve broad range of relevant products that should be channeled through digital and non-digital channels.
She canvassed the need to focus on SMEs, women, youths, agricultural producers, households and individuals, especially those in the informal sector.
She called for reform of the distribution channels, stressing that the present channels limits effective utilisation of alternative distribution channels.
She said that efforts should be made to take insurance business to over 96.4 million total adult population in Nigeria.
