‘Govt Must Provide Policies That Aid Insurance Penetration’

The director, Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc, Ms. Kadaria Ahmed has appealed to government to provide the fiscal policies and supports that will aid insurance growth and penetration in the country.

Ahmed, while delivering a keynote address at a training organised for the members of the National Association of Insurance and Pension Correspondents(NAIPCO), at the Mutual Benefits headquarters, along Ikorodu Road, Ikeja, Lagos, last week, noted that, this would mean that government procure the needed insurance policies, thereby, encouraging individuals and businesses to embrace insurance.

According to her, “reliable policies should be formulated around risk management as this will build trust among citizens and government should provide an appropriate environment that encourages insurance business.”

As government embarks on series of developmental projects, the insurance contents in those initiatives provides businesses for insurance sector, thereby, aiding the profitability and growth of the sector, she pointed out.

While calling for increased sensitisation of the public and businesses about the importance of insurance in their daily lives, she noted that insurance still remains the last hope of survival as insurers will restore the insured back to the financial position he or she was before disaster occurred.

She urged insurance firms to prioritise claims payment as this is crucial to build trust, even as she believes retail insurance is critical and key to Insurance penetration in the country.

Speaking on retail insurance and how Mutual Benefits group has penetrated that space, the managing director/CEO, Mr. Femi Asenuga, said, Mutual Benefits, right from inception, has been at the forefront of championing the campaign of deepening insurance penetration in Nigeria with retail products.

To him, “when we started, we did not start as many of our peers did in the market, because at the time we started, the practice then was companies to align or establish relationship with the brokers because brokers, for so long, have been in control of the big ticket insurance account in the country.”

Asenuga described as abnormal the huge population of the country with low insurance penetration, stressing that “at the time Mutual Benefits started, we reckoned with the major challenge the insurance industry was having at that time, and that was identifying retail insurance penetration as strategy for differentiating ourselves from other players in the market.

“This was made possible because we had to do a widespread of research, looking at what was absent in the market at that time, and our focus was mainly on served and the unserved segment of the market, and this led us into coming up with a whole lots of products – interesting, relevance and the rightful products aims at meeting the needs of the unserved segment of the market.

“Mutual Benefits was the first insurance company in the market that introduced a product that was selling at a very low price of N50 and the product was called ‘Green Shield.”

“Today Mutual Benefits is a preferred destination when you are looking for capable hands in retail insurance development and today our people are everywhere in the market being in charge of retail outlets of various insurance companies,” he stressed.

He said the training programme was one of ‘’our ways of trying to show our appreciation for your supports and for so much NAIPCO as an association has done for Mutual Benefits Assurance Group.