AN insurance trading
portal, insurancemarket.ng developed to deepen insurance penetration in the
country has been launched by the Minister of Communications, Barrister Adebayo
Shittu in Lagos.
The an online market, the
latest in the nation’s fast growing e-commerce sector was unveiled by the
Minister before key stakeholders in the insurance and the ICT industry at an
event, tagged: E-Insurance Conference, 2017 and with the theme: “Driving
Insurance Penetration With ICT”.
According to Shittu, Information
and Communication Technology (ICT) remains the panacea for harnessing and
deepening insurance penetration in Nigeria, saying that the official launch of
insurancemarket.ng by Pinet Informatics Limited will provide support for the
sector, just like ICT has done for the financial institutions.
He said that the
Insurance sector despite being a major driver of business growth that provides
a critical support system to the financial market has not fared well given the
current size of the Nigerian economy and population.
“Information available to
me indicates that there are less than 1.5 million insurance policyholders,
representing a paltry 0.9% of a population of well over 170 million citizens.
Similarly, the gross premium of the sector is said to be less than 500 billion
naira, implying that the sector contributes less than 1% to national GDP”, he
said.
He said, InsuranceMarket
will be expand market activities in the insurance sector explaining that it
will improved operational efficiency(including smooth communication between
clients and company officials), office automation and optimisation, digital
marketing and online marketplace for assessment and purchase of insurance
packages.
Shittu said, in other
climes, e-insurance has already been fully adopted and various insurance
products can be obtained through online insurance portals, which are programmed
to tailor unique insurance packages to the distinctive individual requirements
of prospective customers.
Some aspects of insurance
that have been adapted to e-Insurance, he added, include auto and car
insurance, health insurance, home insurance and life insurance.
The minister who was
delighted with the organisers of the conference promised that government will
continue to introduce and drive policies that will propel Nigeria to attain the
status of a knowledge-based nation.
Managing Director, Mutual
Benefits Assurance, Mr. Segun Omosehin described the idea of using ICT to drive
insurance penetration as a worth initiative saying that patronage of insurance
by Nigerians has been very low.
He said that the business
of underwriting in the insurance market needs ICT to deepen insurance
penetration in the country adding that the launch of insurnacemarket.ng will
promote the insurance industry in Nigeria.
Also speaking at the
event, Managing Director, Brightways Insurance Brokers, Mrs. Nike Braimoh said
that the use of ICT to grow the industry in the country was long over-due
because of the impact of mobile telephone in the growth of other sectors in the
economy.
She said that it now
possible through insurancemarket.ng for anyone to buy insurance product from any part of the country
noting that this new method will benefit the brokers a lot.
Earlier in his welcome
address, Managing Director of Pinet Informatics, Engineer Lanre Ajayi, and the convener
of the conference said that the Conference was to drive home need for technology
and insurance sectors collaboration to drive penetration.
Ajayi said that they saw
the gap and came up with the initiative so that successes recorded in the
telecommunications sector can be replicated in Insurance industry.
This he said requires
“Policy consistency- this has worked in stabilizing telecommunications
industry.
No comments:
Post a Comment