NAICOM Targets N1trn Insurance Base

Commissioner for Insurance, Mr Fola Daniel

By James Emejo
National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has said it planned to grow the insurance industry to a N1 trillion-mark or four per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from the current N250 billion, which merely represents about 0.7 per cent of the GDP, in the next two years.

The commission also said it was currently working to float a micro-insurance product targeted at the grassroots.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja last weekend, Deputy Commissioner, Technical, NAICOM, Mallam Ibrahim Hassan, said the commission considered the planned implementation of the scheme, which was still at its diagnostic stage, as important and significant in deepening insurance in the country.

He said the regulator would be eager to enter an agreement with its partners from Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) after the diagnosis stage.

He said: “It is not just a mere programme, it is tied to financing.

The bulk of that financing is coming from them. The only thing we are going to do, as NAICOM and agency of government, is to part-fund this project;  it is a project that is doable and it is a project that is very laudable we believe it is going to be successful."
Hassan added that only 5-10 per cent of Nigerians in the cities currently benefit from insurance products stressing that the  micro-insurance was going to address about 95 per cent of the Nigerian populace.

He said the commission had recently signed a lot of programmes into action and would soon roll out more action plans under its Market Development and Restructuring Initiative (MDRI).

Head, Financial Sector Reform Component, Gesell-schaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Mr. Hubert Rauch, told THISDAY that the focal point of the project was financial inclusion, which would not only mean loans or credit, but also savings, transfers and insurance.

He said exclusions from financial and insurance services should be addressed within the next 10 years in the country.

ThisDay Newspaper, 26 September 2011. http://www.thisdaylive.com