The President, Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria, Mr. Eddie Efekoha, has said that low awareness is a major setback affecting insurance patronage in the country. He said this during a press briefing, while commenting on recent developments in the industry.
Efekoha said, “The level of insurance enlightenment is not the same everywhere in the country. Low awareness is one of the things affecting patronage, capability of the industry.” According to him, many of those in the rural areas do not have access to insurance products and services.
He said that if the underwriters introduced products in such areas, they would also need to be able to have a good means of identifying the rural residents. Efekoha, who is also the Managing Director of Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc., said that the industry was adopting a concerted effort to address the issue.
He also pointed out that in situations where the financial ability was not there, an individual might not want to buy insurance. If an individual even planned to buy, he added that such person would want to be sure of the value he would get in insurance before paying for it.
The CIIN boss said that it was cogent for the industry to innovate the right products that would suit the needs of different segments, and the appropriate channels to market the products. The Consolidated Hallmark boss also said that the industry’s premium was not growing as it should because the retail market had not been fully tapped.
According to him, the industry had been giving more focus to the corporate market, which was making competition to bring down the price of insurance products. “The insurance industry premium has not grown because the corporate has reached its peak,” he said. Efekoha said the industry needed to adopt development strategies and innovations that were obtainable in other countries with advanced insurance industry