Insurance sector targets N6tn premium by 2020

The Director-General, Nigerian Insurers Association, Mr. Sunday Thomas, has said that the insurance industry is targeting a premium volume of N6tn by the year 2020.He said this at the Association of Registered Insurance Agents of Nigerias conference and national award ceremony in Lagos on Thursday.He said, Insurance industry plans to achieve a premium volume of N6tn and a total market asset of N16tn in 2020.According to him, world report ranks Nigeria 60th in terms of position in the world insurance market.He said that the country ranked lowest in insurance density per head at $7.6 in Africa currently.He also noted that the challenges of insurance penetration were daunting, including low awareness, cultural belief, unfavourable government policies and restriction of insurance sale to the urban area, among others.Other reasons given by him for the low insurance penetration were unhealthy practices among players and poor premium collection methods.To deepen insurance and its penetration into peoples conscious ways of life, he said that the National Insurance Commission was addressing it through its Market Development and Restructuring Initiative project.The commission, he added, was enforcing five out of the 16 compulsory insurance policies in the states.According to him, this will help to create about 250 new jobs in the industry, as well as build customers confidence in insurance.Thomas stressed the relevance of the agents in taking insurance to the grass roots.Agents have to diversify to meet the complex needs of their customers, help in spreading insurance awareness education and take an active part in the conscious efforts being made by all other arms in laundering the industrys image, he said.
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