Nigeria insurance industry gross claims for Q3 2018 rise by 30%
L-R: President, Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), Eddie Efekoha; Chairman, Nigeria Insurers Association (NIA), Tope Smart; Deputy Commissioner (Technical), National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) Sunday Thomas; Head, Corporate Governance, Enforcement and Compliance, NAICOM, Leonard Akah; Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, NSIA Insurance Ltd, Ebelechukwu Nwachukwu and Director General, Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), Richard Borokini, during the NAIPCO end of year workshop tagged: “ 2018 sectoral review/ 2019 projection: SIP in perspective’ in Lagos recently.
The Nigeria insurance industry has continued to respond positively to claims payment as the industry’s gross claims for the third quarter of 2018 rose by 30 per cent compared what was recorded during the same period in 2017, an indication that the industry players are committed to claim payment to their policyholders.
The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), the industry’s regulatory authority on Friday (December 14, 2018) said the industry’s gross claim figure for third quarter (Q3) 2018 increased to N143 billion from N110 billion reported for the same period in 2017; indicating an increase of 30 percent.
The Commissioner for insurance Mohammed Kari who disclosed this during a workshop with insurance and pension journalists in Lagos, stated that they anticipate the final figures for 2018 to be significant.
The commissioner, represented by Deputy Commissioner Technical, Mr. Sunday Thomas, said gross premium as at the (Q3) third quarter was N315 billion, a 22 percent increase over the N258billion for 2017 in the same period.
“The outlook may not be as rosy as we all would have liked but NAICOM sees the silver lining and is fully committed to making the most of it.
“We have set for ourselves a clear, unambiguous task: to improve the aggregate numbers by enabling individual operators to optimally serve a much larger customer pool with a more varied basket of products. “The end game for us is to increase the insurance uptake ratio among the Nigeria populace, he said.
Other initiatives that have been put in place towards achieving set targets according to him include financial Inclusion, micro insurance and expansion of Channels of distribution among others.
He added that financial inclusion is one of the tools the commission envisage to help improve market penetration.
The initiative he noted is premised on the fact that getting the mass of the financially excluded to embrace insurance in one form or another will have a positive impact.
“insurance companies are being encouraged to have a buy-in into our microinsurance initiatives for the Nigerian market. The Takaful market is still grossly under accessed by the public, there is therefore theneed for aggressive promotion in aid of financial inclusion.
“In addition, efforts are being made to expand the distribution channels for insurance products because the traditional channels are becoming too restrictive and suboptimal. Whereas Bancassurance has received the most attention, there are other initiatives to reach out to the public.”
He assured that the achievements of the goal that they have set for themselves are predicated on the market’s ability to attract business and customers need to have confidence in operators.
