By John Oba
Abuja
The rector of the Ccollege of Insurance and Financial Management, Dr. Oyetayo Yeside, has said that insurance aware in Nigeria is low and insurance culture is not that developed in Nigeria.
Oyetayo stated this at the just concluded certification training workshop for insurance agents in Abuja, adding that insurance penetration in Nigeria is only one percent, which means less than 1.7 million people out of 170 million Nigerians but that the institute and NICON has embarked on rigorous awareness campaign.
She said developed nations all over the world developed because their insurance industry were well developed as insurance industry is an industry that help other industries to grow.
“If you look at the market, there is this policy of financial inclusion that has come into insurance industry whereby we design projects for low income earners. And insurance companies collaborating with telecommunication companies to reach Nigerians and insurance awareness is now better than two years ago.
“Insurance has a peculiar place that no other industry can take, insurance is that industry that help other industries grow and any country which insurance is not developed, the development of that county will be in question.
“NICON has been doing sweeping reforms, holding insurance companies accountable, now that are strengthen, making insurance more transparent than it was before and a lot of companies are getting penalize for mistake done better than it was before when companies get away with frauds, she said.
On the training, she said insurance business is not a business that could be dabbled into without training, adding that there is need for understanding of the working of insurance hence the need for the training been offered by the association.
Adding that training of the agents and the agencies is the statutory function of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria as the law mandated it to certify the agents before they can practice.
“As insurance companies or agents, they must be certified and this training qualifies them for that. It is quite true that insurance awareness is low and insurance culture is not that developed in Nigeria but the institute together with NICON has begun an awareness drive, because if the people are not aware they can buy. Because insurance penetration is low, it is about one percent, which means less than 1.7 million people out of 170 million Nigerians.”
