Chairman of Heirs Holdings Group, Heirs Insurance Group & UBA Group Tony Elumelu has made a case for youth inclusion in insurance as Nigeria grapples with insurance apathy.
He made this case while delivering the Key note address at the 2023 National Insurance Conference in Abuja and raised fundamental issues affecting insurance penetration in the country that includes catering to the needs of all demographics and making the industry attractive.
“NAICOM should work with other insurers to ensure a continuous campaign nationwide in local languages that resonate with our people. All insurers should contribute a percentage of their annual profit before tax to help create awareness about insurance in Nigeria. We must take insurance to the young people of Nigeria. Over 70 percent of our population is under the age of thirty, we cannot exclude this demography”, he said.
Mr Elumelu in his presentation attributed Nigeria’s poor insurance culture and low insurance penetration to poor legislation, inefficient insurance processes especially around settlement of claims, insurance regulatory framework, mindset of insurance practitioners in Nigeria and poor capitalisation requirements in the insurance industry.
Nigeria needs to build – Nigeria needs ports, roads, power stations,
we need schools and hospitals, our people need homes. But this
cannot happen if building codes, and legislation are flouted.
Insurance should be as central to our construction industry,
as the concrete that binds our buildings.
The Conference has the theme: Redefining Safety Insurance Solutions for Public Buildings and Buildings under construction and Tony Elumelu observed that the legislation on public buildings is not being adhered to.
“Sections 64 and 65 of the Insurance Act 2003 specify that no
person shall construct any building of more than two floors without
insuring with a registered insurer.
This Act further states that the duty to insure shall arise when a
building is under construction”, he added.
Elumelu called for the democratisation of the insurance sector and proposed an increase the capital base of Insurance Companies to
N20Billion for Life and N30Billion for Non-life respectively; Review of the dichotomy in Insurance authorisations/licences
between life and non-life. Consolidated operators should have
N50Billion; NAICOM should focus on substance and things that will shape the sector and stop approving adverts; All insurers should mandatorily contribute 0.5% of total revenue to drive industry awareness for 5 years;Insurance Brokers capital base should be increased to N1Billion and NAICOM should allow brilliant minds to come into the insurance sector and limit years of experience only to technical areas.
With a population of over 200 million, Nigeria has less than 2% insurance penetration despite economic vagaries.
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