Insurance premium income hits N300 b

Chuks Udo Okonta The Premium income of the insurance industry has hits N300 billion, the Commissioner for Insurance Daniel Fola, has said. Daniel, who disclosed this to a foreign media in Dubai, said the National Insurance Commission NAICOM) has given insurance operators up to 2017 to realise the N1 trillion income target, they failed to achieve last year. Daniel said: “Our people don’t trust insurance. We’ve done a considerable amount of housekeeping to make sure the companies respect the rules.” He noted that the value of insurance contracts would rise to about N1 trillion ($6.4 billion) from N300 billion in 2017, adding that the industry will contribute about three per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), penetration increase to 22.5 per cent from 10 percent. He said compulsory motor-vehicle insurance, which makes up most contracts now, would remain at about 10 per cent by 2017, while life insurance would constitute seven per cent, general business insurance three per cent and petroleum companies’ insurance 2.5 per cent. Daniel said oil and gas businesses will continue to contract international companies to insure their Nigerian operations as the capacity of local insurers is still limited. Managing Director Riskguard-Africa Nigeria Limited Yemi Soladoye, said the industry failed to realised the targeted N1 trillion last year due to their inability to commence implimentation of Market Developement and Restructuring Initiative (MDRI) in 2009 which was designed to prop the projection. He told Inspen that the N1 trillion projection was to be achieved with a four-year strategic plan, adding that there is no way the target would have been achieved, with the commencement of implimentation of the initiative a year to the set deadline.