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| Okonjo-Iweala |
Chuks Udo Okonta and agency reports
The Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
today said the Government is working assiduously to grow the Insurance
Written Premium (GWP) which presently stands at N300 billion to N1 trillion in
the next three years and to N5 trillion in the next 10 years.
In her keynote address at the 2014 Insurance summit with the
theme: Transforming the Nigerian Insurance Sector – A three Year Agenda in
Abuja, Okonjo-Iweala, disclosed government’s strategic plans to transform the
industry within the next three years.
She warned insurance companies to stop collecting premiums from
people if they are unwilling to pay when genuine claims are submitted to them.
She noted that as a result of these fraudulent actions by some insurers many
Nigerians no longer trust insurance companies.
“Many Nigerians are skeptical and hold a negative perception of
our insurance industry. To an extent their skepticism are justified. There are
many insurers in our industry who are eager to take premiums, but are not ready
to pay when genuine claims are submitted. This practice must stop.
“This is one of the reason why people don’t buy insurance if they
feel that when the time comes to get their payouts they don’t get it. This is
something that we must definitely stop and improve upon,” she said.
The Minister submitted that the insurance industry is a powerful
engine for job creation in the country saying that government’s target is to
grow the number of direct employment to 100,000 in the three years from its
present 10,000.
“Unleashing the latent energies of the insurance industry to
create more jobs and boost economic development is one of our strategic
responses to close the gap created by the economic challenges we are
confronting at the moment”
“Given the great progress which the banking and pension sectors
have made in the last decade, insurance can do as well or even better”
The Minister pointed out that to widen access from 3 million
policy holders to its targeted 10 million in 2017, there is need to extend
micro-insurance and takaful insurance (Islamic-complaint insurance) to rural
parts of the country especially to Nigerian farmers who are exposed to various
climate risks.
On the present economic challenges occasioned by falling price of
oil in the global market, Okonjo-Iweala insisted that Nigerians should not be
afraid.
According to her, this is not the first time that the country is
facing such a situation noting that the Federal Government had already began
restructuring the economy before global oil price fall.
While making reference to a quote by a late US President to
buttress her point the she said many Nigerians, “private companies and
households are concerned about how the current economic challenges will affect
them. That is natural and legitimate. But we should avoid the kind of fear that
will paralyze us or make us do the wrong things out of fear and alarm.”
“Government is open to constructive criticism and ideas because we
need to work together as a country to tackle these present challenges. But we
should not let the merchants of fear, those who want to politicize and make
political capital by distorting facts about the economy in order to sow
hopelessness and fear succeed.”
“We have challenges but we also have strengths – a diversifying
economy, increasing non-oil revenues from tax, a growing private sector and a
mix of the right policies to help the economy grow sustainably. We also have a
growing number of goods and products produced in this country so we are not 100
per cent import dependent. These are strengths that we can fall back on to help
us in this challenging times”.
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| Daniel |
The Commissioner for Insurance and helmsman of the National
Insurance Commission (NAICOM) Fola Daniel, said presently, gross premium income
of the insurance sector grew to N300 billion in 2013 from N101 billion in 2007.
He said the industry could not hit its projected target of N1
trillion due by 2012 to the 2008 financial crisis which had a negative impact
on the Nigerian Capital Market and a decline in the growth of personal lines as
a result of changes in the financial services industry.
Daniel said that NAICOM will continue to strike the required
balance between regulation and market development goals to drive the growth of
the sector.
“On the
other hand, we have a section of stakeholders complaining about over-
regulation while on the other hand we have those accusing us of weak
regulation. Importantly, the nation needs sound and safe insurance companies and
an insurance industry that addresses major national challenges such as
financial protection, unemployment and relatively low level of foreign
investment,” he said.
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