7 August 2007
Lagos — Finance Minister, Dr Shamsudeen Usman has tasked operators of the insurance industry to live up to the challenges of addressing problems associated with Information Communication Technology (ICT), low human capital development and low corporate governance culture which he said are currently inhibiting the growth of the sector in Nigeria.
The challenge was the finance minister's first task to insurance companies since his emergence as a member of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua cabinet. Dr Usman was until his appointment as a cabinet minister, a deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
Dr. Usman had declared that the issues of ICT, human capital development as well as good corporate governance were necessary in order to enable the insurance sector to play its role as agent of economic growth most especially as the nation targets the actualization of Millennium Development Goals.
The Finance Minister spoke at the weekend while addressing delegates at the retreat organized by Kapital Insurance Company limited. The three day retreat held at Rockview Hotel Abuja with well over 100 top managers and directors of Kapital Insurance in attendance.
The minister of finance had lamented on the current low level of patronage of services and products of insurance firms in the country even as he charged the operators to reverse the trend by improving on their product designs through the embrace of international best practice.
According to the Minister who was represented by the new commissioner for insurance Mr. Fola Daniel, "going by the 2006 sigma publication on World Insurance outlook, out of a total of 88 countries rated, Nigeria was ranked number 86 in premium per capita with $5.3 per head and number 84 in premiums as a percentage GDP, at 0.6 per cent. This is an unacceptable position that requires robust and sustainable transformation policies".
Earlier, the managing director of Kapital Insurance, Alhaji Mohammed Kari had expressed delight on the appointment of Dr. Shamsudeen as finance minister as well as the appointment of a new commissioner for the National Insurance Commission, saying that these would generate new ideas that would improve the insurance sector.
Also speaking,Alhaji Falalu Bello who is the chairman of the board of directors of Kapital Isurance said that the recapitalization recently carried out by insurance companies in Nigeria was a quantum leap which would catapult the industry into becoming global players.
He expressed hope that in the next four or five years, competition and the need to advance the course of the industry beyond Nigeria's shores would trigger off mergers among the existing companies .
While delivering a keynote address,Alhaji Bamanga Tukur said that the Nigerian insurance industry rating in the world map was below standard , pointing out that "It suffers a characteristic low- level of penetration due to the absence of insurance culture and low level of awareness."
Presently, only 10 per cent of those who should be insured are actually insured against an insured population rate of up to 65 per cent in countries like South Africa, Namibia and Egypt"
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