Stakeholders want a consumer responsive insurance industry

Stakeholders have urged insurance companies and their brokers to imbibe the culture of treating customers fairly in order to achieve the goals of the ongoing financial inclusion agenda of the country.

The stakeholders who made the request at the official launching of Transparent Protection Tpl/Gte, an insurance entity committed to promoting insurance penetration in the country, lamented the low insurance penetration in the country notwithstanding the population.

Uzor Azubuike, chairman, of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions said this trend is unfortunate and indeed disturbing. The big question therefore should be: Why has the sector failed to put up an impressive performance after so many years and what must be done to quicken the pace of development in the sector?” he queried.

Azubuike, who noted that though the sector has been plagued with challenges of improper legal framework, inadequate capital, limited human and technical capacities and low public confidence, said the sector seemed to have vigorously battled the rest of the challenges while nothing concrete had been done to address the major hurdles to insurance penetration, including lack of public awareness for insurance and low public confidence in the system.

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The lawmaker explained that despite the elimination of fringe players from the market and the present ability of existing insurers to settle genuine claims, most Nigerians were still discouraged from having any form of relationship with insurers due to the persistent crisis of confidence.

According to him, the time has come to heal the psyche of the insuring public in Nigeria and engineering them towards a more cordial relationship with insurers and TPL could not have come at a more auspicious time than now, even as he urged industry stakeholders to partner with the NGO in wooing the insuring public towards embracing insurance services.

Chidi Odinkalu, chairman of the event and chairman, Human Rights Commission earlier in his remark noted that despite the potentials of the insurance industry Nigeria has failed to explore the opportunities for sustainable growth.

According to him, rather than create values in areas other economies have used to leverage their competitiveness in the global market through the use of insurance and pension savings, Nigerians prefer to spend on cars and other resource-depleting items that have continued to weaken the asset base of the economy.

He said: “Insurance has a role in the development of the nation and giving assurance on protection in terms of some form of difficulty. An average Nigerian prefers something very tangible but insurance is not tangible but it is something that offers protection from life and death.”