Industry regulator, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) says it may set new standard for technology compliance in insurance companies to boost service delivery and growth of the industry.
The commission said technology is the way to go in improving service delivery to customers as well as deepening penetration of products through improved distribution strategies.
Sunday Thomas, acting commission for Insurance/CEO of NAICOM made the disclosure during question and answer session at the industry’s 2019 Professionals Forum held weekend in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
“We have gotten to the point that we may have to set a minimum level of technology a company will have, to be able to practice insurance in Nigeria”.
He said “as soon as we are able to clean our house internally, we will come back to the market for technology standard of operations”.
This is the way to go for the industry to move forward, so we will come up with initiatives on this, Thomas said.
Eddie Efekoha, president of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), organizers of the forum said the theme of the forum “The Digital Era: Implications for insurance Professionals” brings to the doorstep an issues that will define the insurance industry of today and the future.
Efekoha said the digital era is here and Artificial Intelligence is playing a major role in its evolution. “Indeed, the future which Artificial Intelligence promises for insurance is a series of touchless processes from premium collection through to the entire claims process.”
He also noted that big data is all around us, ready to be harnessed and put to use.
“As an industry, how are we leveraging on technology to simplify data analytics in order to make pricing of insurable risks more accurate; enhance self-servicing of customers through interactive websites; tweak sales practices in line with customer needs and wants in order to improve profitability; bring cost efficiency, as well as maximize overall performance, Efekoha asked.
Thomas in his earlier welcome address challenged insurance companies in the country to embrace technology for growth, saying this has become necessary because it will not only enhance service delivery but will help in the effort to deepen penetration particularly in the retail space.
Thomas said in this 21st century, for any business to succeed, automation of operations is the way forward and called on Chief Executive Officers of insurance companies to embrace technology in order to reap it’s benefits.
According to him, in this 21st century, digital technology has integrated the world and its systems into “one global village” where all transactions are now on our finger tips. Bigger than the phase of the advancement are the implications which are already affecting us positively or negatively depending on our perspective.
“Insurance business must understand that digitalisation has now taken precedence in people’s day to day affairs and the consequence could be massive if we fail to fix any gap that this can create in our service delivery. We must effectively integrate into the robust financial circle for insurance to take its rightful place in the economy.
“We must invest in technology in order to meet up with current phase of advancement and take our products to the comfort of consumers.
Thomas further noted technological advancement has taken an unprecedented leap to becoming an integral part of our daily living, adding that the Digital Era actually started evolving in the 1980s and presented society with information and technologies that are essentially transforming how businesses across all industries operate and serve their customers, the Insurance industry inclusive.
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