By: Fred Yaw
Sarpong
Life
Insurance contributions to the financial sector of the economy which includes
the insurance industry currently stands at about 0.8%, the Commissioner of the
National Insurance Commission (NIC), Miss Lydia Lariba Bawa has disclosed.
According
to her, this is an indication of the extremely low level of life insurance
penetration in the country. She said this in Accra at the launch of two new
products from the Enterprise Life.
“Whereas
this may look discouraging, the flip side of the coin is that there is a great
potential for the development and marketing of life insurance in the country,”
the Commissioner stated.
She
mentioned that to tap into this great potential however requires hard work and
dedicated efforts in specific areas.
“Insurance
companies need to be adequately capitalized to enable them write and retain
significant levels of premium, acquire basic operational, distribution and back
office infrastructure, and optimize economies of scale,” she posited.
Miss
Bawa said effective governance and risk management systems must be deployed to
enable the companies minimize the effect of the environmental and operational
risks that tend to militate against their profitability.
“We
must continue to be innovative as an industry to find suitable and cost
effective distribution channels that will help us reach the underserved
segments of the market.”
She
advised the insurance industry players to make available a wide range of
products that meet the needs of the various segments of the population.
The
Commissioner of Insurance announced that the gross premium and total assets of
the life insurance sector was GHc706 million and GHc1.7 billion respectively as
at the end of 2015, up from GHc187 million and GHc366 million respectively in
2010.
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