FG Calls For Inclusion Of Insurance Education In Education Curriculum
The Federal Government of Nigeria through the Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning, Dr (Mrs) Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, has called for the inclusion of insurance education in the country’s education curriculum from primary to tertiary levels.
Zainab Ahmed made the call today at the commissioning of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) portal in Abuja.
While calling on NAICOM to give deliberate attention to the low insurance literacy and education in the country, she said strategies must be put in place for insurance education, awareness and enlightenment.
“Massive sensitization must be done on both traditional and new media on the benefits of Insurance. I want to advise that insurance education should be introduced in the education curriculum from Primary to Tertiary Schools,” the Finance Minister stated.
On low insurance penetration in Nigeria and abysmal contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP), she called on the Commission to develop new innovative products based on data and customer preferences and introduction of new channels of distribution beyond the traditional channels to reach new segments of the market in order to tap the abounding opportunities existing in the industry.
The Minister enjoined NAICOM to cooperate with other agencies of government to enforce compulsory insurance in the country, just as she called the industry stakeholders to consciously and intentionally spread the reach of insurance from the major cities and a few states to other regions of the country, especially the rural areas.
She charged the operators to vigorously drive inclusive Insurance like micro insurance and takaful to address low penetration in the retail end of the market.
Earlier in his welcome remarks, the Commissioner for Insurance and Chief Executive Officer, NAICOM, Mr. Olorundare Sunday Thomas, took the audience through the composition of the portal and what the Commission stands to benefit.
Thomas said with the completion of the portal,” there will be process efficiency and faster processing time as applications and supporting documents are submitted online, adding that the applicant’s account is updated with the status of the application as it progresses and there is effective Real-time communication between NAICOM and the applicant
“The Portal also provides a Platform for interconnectivity by all industry stakeholders to support real-time aggregation of data on policies at the time of underwriting and policy issuance. Each policy will be issued with a unique policy ID that will be associated with the policy for the lifetime of the policy.”
Thomas explained that the Portal is presently made up of four systems namely: The Policy System; Licensing System; Complaints Management System and Regulatory Returns and Financial Analysis.
“The Policy System: It captures ALL insurance policies issued in Nigeria online real-time via Application Programming Interface (APIs). It generates a unique policy identification number for all issued policies necessary to ensure fidelity and validity of all policies in the country and manages information on all insurance policies and premiums. It enables insurance customers and third-party entities such as Law Enforcement Agencies to query and validate insurance policies.
“Licensing System- It automates the core business processes of Registration/Renewal of Licenses, New Products, AIP no objection & Attestation approvals at NAICOM. All of these application processes will proceed digitally from the application stage where all supporting documents are provided, to the review stage, the approval stage and license generation where applicable.
“Complaints Management System- This is a customized solution designed to help the Commission manage complaints and handle issues seamlessly as well as ensure that insurance companies are performing highly and clients are serviced adequately. The system is also designed to integrate directly with NAICOM existing database, utilizing existing records of customers and insurance companies; it incorporates multiple channels for initiation of complaints including Social media applications (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter), Direct action on the complaint portal, Walk-in complainants, Regular media, Emails &SMS (ShortCode) and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD)
“Regulatory Returns and Financial Analysis – It provides the platform for the submission of all Insurance Industry Regulatory returns and compliance electronically. The financial analysis module of it aims at automating the financial analysis, credit control functions, computation of levies, and providing adequate and timely information to support management decision-making as well as serve as a central repository for current and historical financial information about the Insurers, Re-insurers, Brokers and Loss Adjusters.”
He thanked African Reinsurance Corporation (African Re) for funding the project which he said: “would improve efficiency and effectiveness in supervisory and regulatory oversight of the Nigerian Insurance Industry.”
Thomas told Honourable Minister and the audience that “the challenges of poor insurance penetration, public trust and confidence in insurance and inadequate real-time statistical data of the insurance industry will be resolved through the efficient deployment of the portal. Also, the direct interface with the Industry provided by the portal will ensure greater accountability and transparency. The digital platform will provide a single point of Contact between NAICOM and the Insurance Industry.”
