From Ngozi Onyeakusi — In an effort gear towards continues boosting of insurance penetration to ensure meaningful contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has disclosed that it will focus on market development among other initiatives this year.
The Ag Commissioner for Insurance, Thomas Sunday made the disclosure at the ongoing NAICOM seminar for journalists in Kano, Kano State.
The Commissioner equally assured that the second phase of the Market Development Restructuring Initiative (MDRI) will soon be unveiled, which according to him, would mark out clear targets and tasks for all stakeholders in the industry.
He noted that going forward, the Commission was vigorously pursue the continued implementation of Compulsory Insurances in every nook and crannies of the Country.
“We are certainly not unaware of the challenges inhibiting the successful implementation of these classes of insurance thus far hence, our resolve to work with relevant stakeholders to ensure a seamless drive.
Indeed, the successful implementation of compulsory classes of insurance across the nation will ensure adequate protection of our strategic National Assets. We will be working with the relevant security agencies to guarantee effective and efficient monitoring of compliance”, he assured.

Sunday further noted that ensuring that the right pricing of insurance products and effective deployment of technology for ease of transaction were among the key areas the Commission will be emphasizing this year.
” Digitalisation of insurance business is no longer an option, but an imperative which we all have to work towards its actualisation. As we may all be aware, the industry is currently lagging behind other financial services sectors in this area. The Commission is working vigorously to see that all its operations are digitalised. The year 2020 is a year for us to turnaround the fortunes of the industry and this cannot be accomplished without digitalising our processes and encouraging the industry to imbibe same”, said Thomas.

Earlier in his presentation, the Director of Governance, Enforcement and Compliance, NAICOM, Leo Akah, assured that market development remained one of the ways to raise insurance contribution to GDP from one per cent to a reasonable figure.
He regretted that despite the Nigerian population, insurance contribution to GDP remained abysmally low.
“Insurance is a game of large number, despite of our huge population, insurance contribution to GDP in Nigeria is still trading at one percent”, he said.