UNDERWRITERS have been urged to build Nigerians’trust in insurance penetration, experts have said.
The experts, Mrs. Yetunde Ilori, the Director-General, Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), and Mr. Moruf Apampa, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Sunu Assurance Plc, said this at the conference on Insurance and Pension in Lagos.
They said since insurance business is about good faith, insurers must earn the trust of the people to boost insurance penetration.
The reason Nigerians are neglecting insurance, according to Mrs. Ilori, is because of the negative perception they have about insurance services, stating that there is no regulatory enforcement for insurance unlike pension. Misconception and misrepresentation, she said, are other problems that must be addressed by operators in the sector.
“It is high time insurers understood what the buyers are looking for; how do they want it as well as where do they want it so that this will drive a change in their behavioural pattern when it comes to deploying their limited resources,” she said.
Moreover, she said, if insurance products are readily accessible, it will attract more people and if deployed through mobile phones and familiar terrains such as the banks, people will take advantage of this and embrace insurance, thereby deepening penetration as well contributing to the nation’s economy.
When developing insurance products, she said, innovation and creativity should be taken into consideration, noting that a product should be able to address the needs of the customer, should be kept simple and flexible. She equally urged operators to offer bundled and complementary products that will make insurance attractive to Nigerians.
Stating that products should be scaled down in such a way that they address the immediate needs, she added that insurance pricing should be scientific and commensurate discounts and incentives be put in place so that people can love it.
“Insurance companies, association and regulators should be responsive when it comes to complaints and disputes resolution. Those that sell insurance should be people that are knowledgeable and have high sense of honesty, who will not deceive the buyers. Since Information Communication Technology (ICT) is the in thing, insurance company should invest more in ICT so that people can leverage it and be reached when they want it as they want it.” she stressed.
On his part, Apampa said insurers must know their customers to be able to carve products that address their immediate needs, adding that, it is high time operators focused on the retail business.
According to him, “the most important thing for us (insurance companies) to do is to first know our customers; how do we reach them and how to serve them because if you don’t know your customer, you can’t reach and serve them. Insurance penetration is below 1.5 per cent, and yet, operators are focusing on the corporate side of the business. What is happening to the retail side of the business; the market women; the trade associations? We need to identify these people and then device means to reach them.”
Stating that insurance policy rates might not necessarily be a challenge, he believes insurers are not doing enough to convince the people to buy insurance.
“Okada rider can afford N2,000 pepper soup in a day and the same Okada rider cannot afford to buy annual insurance for N1,500. What we need to do, as I said earlier, is to know these customers. Now, they are willing to pay, but how do we make them to pay? They only want two things, which are, investment and protection,” he stressed.
Urging underwriting firms to make their products accessible and attractive to these people, he called on operators to be responsive to claims settlement as these can go a long way to make Nigerians build their trust in insurance services.
To him, “We have to be very fast in terms of paying claims. In terms of product innovation, I think we have to be very innovative. What kind of products are we churning out? Are these products really addressing the need of the people? These are questions that must be answered. The only thing we can give to these people is to get their trust and when you get their trust, they can give you their money.”