Skills-gap hinders insurance prospect

The lack of skilled human resource for the insurance industry could hurt its bright prospects, Emmanuel Mokobi Aryee, Chief Executive Officer of Prudential Life Insurance Ghana Limited has said.

Measured as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), insurance penetration remains below two percent of the population, which underpins the vast but yet to be exploited potential.

However, a limited number of institutions of higher learning offer actuarial science and other insurance-related programmes that prepare students for major roles in the industry.

“This is a technical area and therefore requires that people who operate in that space have the requisite knowledge and skills to be able to do the work that is required of them. So moving forward, if you ask me, the key thing that we need to do is to focus on developing the right human capacity to be able to deal with the issues with running insurance companies,” Mr. Aryee said.

A recent Oxford Business Group (OBG) report shows that the value of the country’s insurance market will reach US$600 million in 2018, from US$400million in 2014, based on a projected annual growth rate of 8.5percent.

The sector accounted for about 5 percent of asset ownership in the financial sector, as at the first quarter of 2016.

Mr. Aryee told B&FT that the recent influx of companies into the sector has increased competition, and that to get ahead of that competition requires people with the right knowledge, capable of thinking ‘outside the box’.

“I’m not in any way saying that competition is bad, but what competition does is that it gets all of us to sit up, so that we can be able to deliver the best service to the client.

To get ahead of the competition, means you need something extra. When it comes to products, it is easy for people to copy products, even technology is easy for people to copy technology; but you would agree that it is not easy to imitate human resource skills, expertise and knowledge. That’s the more reason why from the perspective of a CEO, I believe that moving this industry forward largely depends on quality human resource,” Mr. Mokobi explains.

Going forward, Mr. Aryee notes, companies need to constantly invest in their staff in order to get the desired results.

“I agree hundred percent with people who have the view that technology will be one of the driving factors. But the challenge is for somebody with the expertise, someone who is sharp, somebody who has the competence to be able to realise this opportunity and see that this is an opportunity to ride on,” he noted.

According to him, the National Insurance Commission (NIC), through its college, is supporting in the training process, and others like GIZ are also supporting the NIC in making sure that they hone the skills of practitioners in industry, but the most important thing is for the companies to see the need to invest more in the individuals who work within the company.