The Commissioner For Insurance, National Insurance Commission NAICOM, Mr. Olorundare Sunday Thomas has assured that the commission is taking the issue of financial inclusion very seriously in order to enhance insurance penetration in Nigeria.
Mr. Thomas, who made this known while interacting with newsmen at the Retreat for Insurance Journalists, recently held in Uyo, Akwa Ibim State, disclosed that the Commission is not relenting in it’s drive to bring those who are currently not enjoying insurance services into the system, for easy access to such services and economic benefits.
To this end, the CFI disclosed that the Commission has approved additional products and licensed additional micro insurance companies to promote insurance penetration and enhance service delivery.
According to the NAICOM boss, “For Micro Insurance and even Takaful we have a unit in the Commission now that has the primary responsibility for that.
“The governance structure of financial inclusion and the product approval is now domiciled in that unit. Approval processes for Micro Insurance and Takaful institutions are being dealt with at the financial inclusion unit” he said.
Earlier, NAICOM Deputy Commissioner, Technical, Mr. Sabiu Abubakar, stated that the patronage of low income earners to micro insurance operators has increased significantly.
He revealed further that the Commission has also increased the number of licensed Micro Insurance operators and now have series of conventional insurers, who are the big players in the industry recently indicating their interest in Micro Insurance.
” We are receiving application for window operations and the Insurance companies are picking interest. Though, we don’t have much new products but all the existing ones are profitable”, he stated.
Abubakar however expressed concerns over the challenges impeding the growth and development of Micro Insurance in the country due to current harsh realities, which he noted has affected every sector of the economy.
The challenges according to the Deputy Commissioner include networking, infrastructure deficiency, security protection and.cost of operations.
However, the Commission assured that the current economic harsh realities is only temporary, surmountable and will soon be a thing of the past.
