Insurance penetration to hit 5% by 2020 - NIC

The extensiveness of insurance penetration in Ghana is projected to reach five percent by the year 2020, as National Insurance Commission (NIC) puts in place pragmatic measures to advance sector growth.

The level of insurance penetration in Ghana, excluding pension and National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), at the moment is under two percent (2%) and NIC is hoping to intensify public education to reach out to both formal and informal sector of the economy.

“We are expecting the market to grow to about five percent by 2020, we have been doing a lot of work on the inclusive insurance side, and have seen some growth, and we want to see same growth on conventional side as well. We are working on Marine Insurance, Agriculture Insurance as well and we hope to achieve a lot of growth,” Deputy Commissioner of Insurance, Michael Andoh indicated.

As part of the pragmatic measures to step up efforts at intensifying sensitisation and education to the Ghanaian public, the NIC, Ghana Insurance Association (GIA), Ghana Insurance Brokers Association (GIBA), Charted Insurance Institute of Ghana (CIIG), the Ghana Insurance College (GIC) and the National Association of Ghana Insurance Agents (NAGIA), have collectively formed a body called Insurance Awareness Coordinators Group (IACG), to improve generic understanding of insurance and deepen penetration.

In line with activities to achieve this objective, IACG, in collaboration with all its stakeholders, are organising a national insurance sensitisation campaign on 50 radio stations throughout the 16 regions of Ghana.

The Chairman of IACG, Wilson Tei, stated that to the task of educating Ghanaians, ICAG has segmented the population of Ghana into six cohorts, with specific educational intervention, suitable for each cohort.

“ICAG is tasked with oneness responsibility of educating Ghanaians about the importance of risk-management generally and insurance uptake in particular. The following tailor-made sensitisation measures will be used for the various cohorts.

“Public lectures and trade fair outreach to colleges and university communities, roadshow campaigns in local market centres and nodal towns in Ghana, and social media sensitization for the youthful population in Ghana.

“others include; Outreach to faith-based groups in Ghana, Insurance clubs’ formation and sensitisation in junior and senior high Schools in Ghana, and radio sensitisation on community radios and FM stations in Ghana,” he outlined.

He also indicated that the campaign which commences this week, will involve airing of insurance educative jingles in 34 Ghanaian languages, while the interactive life radio programme will also allow the use of local dialect for conversation with various communities.

Deputy Commissioner of Insurance, NIC, Michael Kofi Andoh, is encouraging the general public to take advantage of the campaign and interact with the insurance experts to clear their doubt about all insurance related issues and get involve.

“The core mandate of insurance is to manage life risk against unforeseen peril. This ensures that when the unexpected happens in life, families and relations or assets are safe and protected.

“the influx of fake insurance operators and fraudulent insurance companies or stickers is a big challenge and we need collective collaboration to deal with it. We therefore call on the general public to report such people and assist us with investigation as witnesses,” he emphasised.

He also added that the NIC is working on an electronic motor insurance database to deal with fake motor insurance stickers in the country, as the number of vehicles in the country do not tally with insured vehicles though motor insurance is mandatory.