The Commissioner for
Insurance, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Mr Fola Daniel, said the commission would boost grassroots awareness on insurance as it posed a major challenge in the sector.
Daniel said this during a news conference at the one-day Insurance Summit 2014 in Abuja tagged ‘Transforming the Nigerian Insurance Sector: A three-year agenda’.
“I think one of the things you will see after this summit is that insurance companies will begin to create more meaningful awareness, grassroots awareness.
“Because one of the biggest gaps we have is that people really are not aware, they do not understand insurance mechanism,’’ he said.
He said the commission would also ensure that there was a simplified ‘policy wording’ because the policy for most insurance wordings was filled with jargons.
He said the jargons discouraged people from reading and also going into insurance policies and the commission was set to tackle the problem.
“It has been done elsewhere and I am sure we can do it.
“In Egypt you will find their micro insurance is just a one-page document and it tells you what it covers and what it does not cover.
“Particularly, what it does not cover, you will find that in red; so from the beginning you are not in any doubt as to what you have bought,’’ Daniel said.
He said the commission would also create a situation in the policy where people could actually return products that did not suit the purpose for which they had bought it.
Also, the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said the insurance sector was a new sector that could grow and in the long run enable growth in Nigeria’s economy.
Okonjo-Iweala said the insurance summit was aimed at changing the attitude of insurers and the insured, bringing in more products, simplifying insurance policies and ensuring more claims.
According to her, when people have confidence that their claims will be paid, it will encourage them to insure more.