Pension Reform Act 2014 has greatly developed the insurance industry, so says the Executive Director, Centre for Pension Rights Advocacy, Barrister Ivor Takor. He disclosed this at the 3rd National Conference of the National Association of Insurance and Pension Correspondents (NAIPCO) held last week in Lagos.
Takor, who was represented by his son, Rhodrick Takor, noted that the implementation of the Act, has led to monthly pension payment under the Life Annuity Scheme established under section 7(1)( c ) of the Act to average at N1.7 billion as at March 2017, stressing that the total premium paid to Insurance Companies for the Group Life under section 4(5) of the Act was N170.57 billion within the same period.
“This has significantly assisted the growth of the insurance industry. The current Net Assets Value of Pension Assets under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) has been put at N8.14trillion. This is happening against a background of Federal government budgetary pension deficit estimated at N2 trillion as at June 2004, when the Contributory Pension Scheme took off and a non-existing industry before the Contributory Pension Scheme took off is a huge achievement,” he said.
He noted that members of the Fola Adeola Pension Reform Committee, which he was part of, are happy that the issue of the warehousing of annuity fund has been amicably resolved by the insurance and pension industries.
He posited that stakeholders are beginning to see some level of aggressive marketing by underwriters, as against what obtained in the past, adding that this no doubt will go a long way in developing the industry.
He maintained that when claims are paid promptly, people will insure their insurable risks, and remarked that if insurance companies have two faces, that is the face of a dove when marketing and the face of a lion when claims are due for payment, people will keep away from them and resort to insuring all their insurable risks with God through prayers.