PIC launches Life Assurance Company and three others

Accra, Aug. 27, GNA - Provident Insurance Company Limited on Thursday launched its Life Assurance Company dubbed "ProvidentLife" and three new products to give its clients a wider variety of services. The products, ProvidentLife Educator Plan, ProvidentLife International Travel Health Insurance, and 50 Plus Security Plan are tailored to suit the current needs of the society.

Ms Josephine Amoah, Commissioner at the National Insurance Commission (NIC), launching the products, said the market needed more of such innovative products, and advised life insurers to stay away from complex financial products and try to keep them very simple. She said not only are simple products easier for policy holders to understand, but the risks involved are also better understood by the insurers themselves, and therefore better managed.

"One such simple product which I would urge life insurers to consider is micro-insurance. Through micro-insurance, the industry can reach the low income sector of the population which has hitherto not been targeted by our insurers.

"If the products are packaged in such a way as to make the premiums affordable, and if the contract wordings are made brief, easily understandable and with just a few exclusions, they will have a greater appeal to the low income and rural households," she added. Ms Amoah said micro-insurance had a great potential and if handled properly could be an effective tool for mobilizing funds from the informal sector.

The Commissioner advised that companies should focus on keeping their costs low, use convenient and well trusted delivery channels, and establish links with financial and other services which had wider distribution networks in order to make micro-insurance commercially viable. She announced that the Commission was working in collaboration with the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) on a number of initiatives which would create an enabling environment for micro-insurance business to thrive in the country.

Lt. General Joseph Henry Smith, Minister of Defence, who was the immediate past Chairman of the NIC Board, said the landscape of the insurance industry had changed over the years with various initiatives by the government and the NIC to support the industry in many ways. Those initiatives, he said, culminated in the growth and expansion of the industry.

He said one major initiative was the promulgation of the Insurance Act, 2006 (Act 724), which aimed at ensuring that insurance companies were adequately capitalized and observing good corporate governance principles in order to ensure adequate protection for insurance policyholders.

Act 724 also required that life and non-life insurance activities should be separated and handled under autonomous Boards and managements. Lt Gen. Smith said the rationale for the separation of life and non-life business was to make it possible for the necessary attention to be given to the life business to enable it to grow and contribute effectively to national development through mobilization of long term funds.

He noted that the intense competition within the financial services sector had contributed to the creation of new innovative products to the delight of both corporate and individual clients, and commended ProvidentLife Assurance Company Limited for the innovations. He said the task of bringing insurance to the doorsteps of Ghanaians had become even more pertinent now than ever, and expressed the hope that with those products the company would map out effective strategies to meet the expectations of both the existing and potential clients. Mr Wilson Tei, Managing Director, ProvidentLife, said life assurance policy created and accumulated money for one's needs during his lifetime and after death, and urged the public to patronize the products.

He said with the international travel health insurance, the company teamed up with SOS International to give the best package and services to their clients. "We strive for transparency; we strive for efficiency and we assure peace of mind," he said.