The Commissioner for Insurance, Sunday Thomas, disclosed this in a paper delivered at a seminar organised by the commission for newsmen in Lagos with the theme “The Future of the Nigerian Insurance Sector in a Shifting Landscape.”
Thomas urged underwriting firms to develop innovative products, and distribution channels and embark on massive infrastructure development, while stakeholders in the industry must improve on social safety net schemes, rejig business continuity plans, create new experiences that add value, and deploy technology to meet the expectations of today’s consumers.
Thomas said that some of the initiatives of the commission included engagement with stakeholders and state governments to ensure the domestication of laws to ensure compliance with compulsory insurance.
He said the engagements were targeted at improving insurance businesses in the states.
The commissioner added that NAICOM is also driving the Market Development and Restructuring Initiative to promote compulsory insurance products across the 36 states of the federation.
However, it is also our responsibility to engage in Feasibility Assessment for Index-Based Risk Transfer Solutions in the agricultural sector, driving financial inclusion via a focused insurance awareness campaign for the financially excluded.
He maintained that in the year passed, the commission unveiled the Insurtech Accelerator platforms under its Insurance Market Development programme in conjunction with Financial Sector Deepening-Africa (FSD-Africa).
Insurtech, the global insurance accelerator, is a mentor-driven business accelerator designed to foster innovation in the insurance industry by supporting Insurtech start-ups targeting the global insurance industry.
He said the commission is in an ongoing partnership with the Nairobi-based FSD-Africa in developing a Risk-Based Capital Model for Nigeria’s insurance industry.
Thomas said NAICOM would continue to promote the development of products and business models that met the needs of the financially- excluded.
He said that since disruption was integral in modern business environments, innovations being implemented by the commission were meant to gain control of specific untapped segments of the market.
Thomas said that the Commission also encouraged the introduction of products that met consumers’ tastes to grow insurance businesses.
He said also that the global business environment would continue to grapple with the lingering effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war that had impacted negatively on world economies.
He stressed that because of security challenges, insurers could help to alleviate inherent risks facing insurance consumers and be sources of long-term funding for capital projects.
Thomas assured that as regulators, NAICOM would continue to consolidate on the government’s cardinal agenda of developing the market and fostering insurance inclusion with a mutual collaboration of the media and other relevant stakeholders.
