Insurers intensify awareness campaign to shore up patronage

Joshua Nse and Lawrence Njoku


…Promise quick, prompt payment of claims
OPERATORS of the insurance industry are conscious of the huge untapped opportunities in the market, they are earnestly yearning to exploit it for profit.

To be able to do so, they have begun sustained enlightenment campaign to correct the negative perception Nigerians hold about insurance business and highlight the advantages and benefits of insurance as security for their lives and property.

On the league of this campaign are the various arms of the industry spearheading the awareness campaign include the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) and the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB).

For instance, the Enugu branch of the CIIN took the campaign to Enugu, southeast zone sensitising the people to embrace insurance as an important security to mitigate their losses.

Besides, NAICOM a couple of weeks commissioned the North-Central zonal office, comprising Kwara, Kogi, Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa and Niger states respectively to deepen insurance penetration through the market development and restructuring initiatives (MDRI) in the area.

Specifically, workers of the industry under the aegis of the Institute on Wednesday last week suspended work for street walk to keep fit and raise awareness on the need for the people to buy insurance protection for their lives and assets.

Dressed in white shirts and caps to match, with songs and distribution of handbills, the walk which commenced about nine in the morning took the insurance workers to major streets of Enugu and finally to Okpara Square.

State chairman of the CIIN, Emmanuel Onu, said the fitness walk was borne out of the low patronage of insurance policies in Nigeria, stressing that the present situation in the country had made insurance protection imperative.

Specifically in the southeast, he said, the people are beginning to embrace insurance compared with what it used to be, adding however that it is not as high as what is obtainable in the West.

He attributed the success to improvement in the quality of services being rendered by insurance companies.

"Unlike before when people complained of delay in claims payment, non-payment of claims, but these days the delay is very minimal because every company wants to stand out; claims are paid promptly now and if there is any issue, there is the National Insurance Commission to handle it. So companies are being very careful and paying claims. It is no longer a situation where claims are denied", he said.

He identified low awareness and inability of people to change their mindset about insurance as some of the challenges facing the industry in the southeast.

"They think that insurance is still what it used to be, when some of these claims were not honoured. It is a serious challenge, which we are still battling to erase because to us, it is a bad image for the industry. We need to make them know that the situation has changed and that a lot of people are benefiting from insurance", he said.

According to him, it is now mandatory for buildings to be insured against collapse or any other mishap, adding that such includes building liability, group life assurance policy and occupiers liability and urged residents to embrace the policy cover for protection.

Also speaking, one of the elders in the industry, Philip Odo, said the exercise was to remind residents that much work without play was not good for any person.

The NIA said: "The creation and sustenance of public awareness of the activities of the industry were among the major policy pursuit of the association. In the past one year, we have sponsored radio jingles in some states of the federation to educate Nigerians on the benefits of insurance of their lives and property."

The Commissioner for Insurance, Fola Daniel, speaking at the opening of the zonal office in Ilorin recently, said: "The commission in its quest to deepen insurance penetration in our country established a developmental platform called the market development and restructuring initiative (MDRI). The programme is in line with the Federal Government’s FSS2020 development framework and has amongst its goals – to promote public understanding of insurance mechanism, built confidence in the Nigerian insurance market, grow the gross premium income , increase insurance density and contribute to GDP, and ensure enforcement and monitoring of compulsory insurances in Nigeria."

Source: The Guardian