Insurer Chart New Course For Growth

As the balance sheets of insurance companies for 2008 financial year began to stroll in with most companies posting heavy losses partly because of the effect of economic crunch, calls for more innovative ways of doing insurance business in Nigeria has intensified.

Presenting a paper at the National Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) in Lagos, the President of the National Insurance Association (NIA) Wole Oshin decried the present reality in Nigerian insurance space where innovations in product designs is not taken serious by underwriters.

"Nigerian insurance companies are yet to come up with any meaningful product that can support the financial system other than the more traditional products like the Money Insurance and Fidelity Guarantee products" he said.

He said: "it is important to continuously increase the awareness of insurance across board. Campaigns should go to the grassroots, villages, schools, and government.

"To be relevant in the financial service sector we must develop actuarially based financial products which will ultimately make banks more dependent on insurance as opposed to the present situation ."

He explained further that, Nigeria's traditional Property Insurance products also needs to be more sophisticated and in line with modern developments in the sector.

He said: "We must build local capacity. Despite our Capital raising efforts, we seem to retain too little in the Nigerian Market in some cases. This is the only way we will be able to contribute to economic growth.

"Life insurance products have long assisted Estate planning and mortgages. I see a situation where this would be further developed as there is a rebound in the economy. The trend where Life products are being discounted in the case of Property insurance is a dangerous trend and must be stopped immediately.

"Appropriate pricing models must be used in developing Life products along with Mortgage related products."