In developed economies, insurance is an embedded products in financial and social services and at such, people have no alternative than to procure it. The growth in insurance sector across European countries, aside from the mode of infusing insurance into every sphere, was also attributed to increased awareness on what the concept ‘insurance’ is all about and what the insured stands to gain. Claims are also paid promptly as soon as an insured risk crystalises.
In Africa, aside South Africa, Kenya and a few other countries, the rest nations on the continent, including Nigeria, are just scratching the surface.
There is low insurance awareness both in the formal and informal settings. People in governance, who should be the promoter of such concept in Nigeria, hardly understand what insurance is and can do for them. That is why, even though, government is the single largest consumer of insurance products, a lot of government assets are still uninsured at the federal and the state levels. Similarly so, in the private sector, insurance penetration is an eyesore and the worst of it is in the informal sector whose players have an age-long belief that insurance is a scam.
It was to this end that stakeholders have been canvassing for massive insurance awareness in the country. The awareness is expected to explain the benefits of insurance and how they can trigger their policy when there is an insured risk.
To this end, the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers(NCRIB) recently embarked on raising insurance awareness initiative through Insurance Walkshow as well as Lawn Tennis competition. It was a gesture applauded by stakeholders who believe the industry needs more of this to deepen insurance education and awareness in the country.
Earlier, there was an Insurance Walk that started from NCRIB headquarters at Moleye Street, Alagomeji, Yaba, to Adeniji Adele on Third Mainland Bridge and back to its office. At the walkshow, lots of souvenirs and pamphlets with inscriptions on how to Insure were distributed to the people, while some of the insurance operators and brokers who took part in the exercise took time to explain to people on how to Insure their lives and properties.
‘’We want to use this platform to bring consistent information on insurance and awareness to the Nigeria populace,’’ NCRIB president, Barrister Rotimi Edu said.
He, however, through the show, called on shop owners, market women, mechanics, and artisans to take advantage of the benefits and values of insurance to safeguard their business from unfortunate circumstances.
While urging the general public to always seek the services of the registered insurance brokers whom he said, ‘are the professional insurance people’ on their risk issues, he said, about 600 brokers and 50 insurance underwriters took part in the exercise to give knowledge of insurance to the members of the public. According to him, “we are using the walk to mark the 60th anniversary of the council and at the same time, we are using the walk to also preach insurance and the importance of using insurance broker to close your insurance engagement because brokers are known to be the professionals in the industry.”
Speaking at the grand finale of the Lawn tennis tournament where Mr. Ehiz Uwague of Sovereign Trust Insurance(STI) Plc emerged the winner at Men Single Category, NCRIB president, Rotimi Edu, opined that the industry must drastically engage right strategy to create awareness.
To him, sport had been proven to be one of the most active and widely used tools to engage the mind of the public about any particular subject of importance.
He added that, “the use of sports as didactical tool to raise awareness about insurance is a deliberate effort of the council to educate common Nigerians on why they should insure all their assets. Our intention is to indirectly enforce, not only the government’s highlighted insurance policies, but all insurance products without compulsion
“We shall continue to engage public minds. You will recall that few days ago, we embarked on Insurance Awareness Walk from Moleye to Adekunle end of Lagos Third Mainland Bridge, where we shared flyers that narrate what insurance stands for. Before the end of the year, we have plan to take the awareness walk campaign to market places and government circles.”
Similarly, the commissioner for Insurance/CEO, the National Insurance Commission(NAICOM), Mr, Sunday Thomas was declared overall winner of NCRIB maiden tennis competition in Veteran category held at Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Lagos recently, few days after the Insurance Walkshow.
The Lawn Tennis competition, which was part of the activities to mark the 60th anniversary of the council as well as to create awareness about insurance, particularly, the role of insurance brokers in insurance value chain, progressed from Round of 32 to produce winners at two major categories.
The two days competition which was well attended by members of the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, students of both Secondary and tertiary institutions and insurance industry became a platform for stakeholders to drum the beats of insurance importance to sport lovers.
Thomas who played against the deputy managing director, Hogg Robinson, Mr. Saheed Egbeyemi eulogised the initiative of using sport to draw public attention to the importance of insurance and urged other insurance professionals to log into the initiative for the benefit of the entire industry.
Speaking in an interview with LEADERSHIP at the event, Mr Sunday Thomas congratulated NCRIB for this initiative by using sport to create awareness for insurance.
“If you deeply look at it, this is the height of it; we are not only looking at our customers to get premium, we are also looking at the health of our customers. Its about talking on our environment, products and services. When they (operators) are healthy is when they can run their organisations well and that is when they can think of insurance.
“To live longer, you will need insurance to sustain all you have worked for, I think it’s a right step in the right direction and must be sustained. I think, even among us(insurance operators), it is only when we are healthy that we can do all that is needed to preserve the assets of our consumers and that means preserving the assets of the nation,” he pointed out.
He stated that one of the challenges insurance industry has faced over time was that people don’t understand what insurance is all about and at such, couldn’t understand its importance to their lives.
“The challenge we have had as an industry is people not knowing what our business is all about and not seeing the importance of that business. If there is anything that is missing as a gap now, people have talked so much about resources, it’s true but it’s not as important as people knowing what they need. We need to let them know what they need and I think awareness is very central to letting the public understand our business and how they can benefit,” he stressed.
On how NAICOM is pushing insurance awareness and adoption to states across the federation, he said: “the responses of the states to NAICOM visits is fantastic and it only confirms that they don’t know what we are doing.
I was in one of the state in the North and you will be shocked that the governor told me that it was the first time he was hearing about Takaful Insurance. That means we are not doing enough, we are not creating that awareness and immediately, he set up the committee that is going to work on it and as I speak right now, people are already structured and in one of those states in the North, they have already started implementation.
“So, and that is exactly what this is all about. The other time, I was somewhere in the South South also trying to create that awareness that there is a gap here. One, insurance is statutory and it is also required because insurance companies have the responsibility of preserving national assets and that is what we are trying to do,”
Earlier, the president, Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria(CIIN), Sir Muftau Oyegunle,said, he was quite happy with the initiative which is creating awareness on what Insurance is all about, by “letting people know who we are and let them know the benefits we have for the community and the more visible we are in the society, the better for everybody.”
Awareness, he said, is about getting people to know who you are and what you stand for, adding that, visibility is the starting point of awareness as ‘people must see you and know you are there before you now start talking to them about what you do. So, this is the right step in the right direction.’
“To be honest, I think we are trying in awareness although we are not there yet, but we know where we are going to. That is the starting point, because when you know you have a problem, the issue is half solved. We are conscious of where we are going and where we are and we are doing all we can do to fastrack the development and thank God government is gradually coming to appreciate that we need them because this is not something we can do on our own.
“Anywhere in the world, government backing is critical for the success of Insurance industry and I think we are getting their listening ear now. So, I think we are on the right part and I think Insurance has a big role,” he pointed out.
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