“There are moments in the life of every industry when reform must move from intention to action, and when vision must be translated into measurable impact.”
That moment that set the tone of what is to come was when Mr. Olusegun Omosehin, Commissioner for Insurance, National Insurance Commission, launched the five maximum duration of Insurance Sector Strengthening Programme, which is an amalgamation of all dimensions of stakeholders and the regulator for the purpose of aligning innovation with regulatory excellence.
This is a classical everybody come inside initiative, the initiators have not created this for themselves but for the operators, uninsured, and underinsured Nigerians and businesses. The insurance companies particularly and brokers would delve into the innovation operation room to provide products that meet needs of policyholders in a manner never done before. Its a moment where the industry will meet the large army of potential policyholders to achieve an upgraded dimension of penetration.
The ISSP team sets clear intentions and directions at interceptions and on the move; among its collection of nuggets is that it is more than a programme, “its a movement toward a resilient, innovative, and inclusive insurance ecosystem for all Nigerians.”
ISSP Team Lead, Bukola Ifemade, MD, EMDI Capacity Development Limited, was succinct about the 36 – 60 month programme mission in her welcome address. She unveils, “At the heart of ISSP is a shared commitment to building a stronger, more inclusive and more innovative insurance ecosystem. Through advocacy, awareness, professional development, gender inclusion, youth engagement, innovation and MSME value chain strengthening, the programme seeks to translate regulatory intent into measurable impact.”
Her ‘measurable impact’ calibration lands on the same platform with Omosehin’s ‘measurable impact.’ Clear words that show the landmark initiative was designed to accelerate the transformation of Nigeria’s insurance landscape and position the sector as a more inclusive, innovative, resilient, and trusted contributor to national development.
The CFI minced no words when he remarked that the initiative which plans to bring in five million new policy holders by 2031. By same time 25 million Nigerians would have been reached with insurance awareness. On a definite mark he said programme has come to take on the realities confronting the market that has become boulders standing as stops allowing minimal movement on insurance advancement.
Omosehin establishes these realities; “The importance of this initiative is clear when viewed against the realities confronting our industry. Despite Nigeria’s large and growing economy, insurance penetration remains significantly below its potential. Many citizens remain uninsured or underinsured, public understanding of insurance products and benefits is still limited, and opportunities among women, youth, and small businesses are not yet fully harnesses. Issues of trust, capacity gaps , fragmentation distribution channels also continue to constrain industry growth.”
As he dovetails on the action plan of the team, the CFI said, “Its focus on awareness and education is particularly timely. Insurance uptake is directly linked to public understanding and trust. No insurance market can flourish where consumers do not appreciate insurance as a practical tool for financial protection and risk management.
He also upticks emphasis on capacity building. He maintained that future competitiveness of the industry depends on the quality of its human capital. His charge, “As technologies evolve and customer expectations change, insurance professionals must continue to develop the skills and competencies required for excellent service delivery.”
Sorting the programme through the lens of the Team Lead, Bukola, within a duration of five years, 36 – 60 months five million new Nigerians would have embraced insurance with at least an insurance policy across all the 36 states and FCT. Another high tide goal is to raise the insurance-to-GDP ratio from 0.5% to 10% by 2031.
Nigeria’s critically low insurance penetration is the catch and this inglorious engrave stands despite Nigeria’s position as Africa’s largest economy, insurance penetration remains at 0.5% of GDP, compared with a continental average of 3.2%.
The critical situation is in the belly of the graph depicting lom marks for Nigeria where besides the aforementioned stats on GDP and continental average, 78% of Nigerians have been identified as lacking basic understanding of insurance products, with women shsre of policyholders at 32%, current customers in the age bracket of 18 – 35 years are less than 20%, while MSMEs with any form of insurance coverage is 8%
For the next 36 – 60 months specific attainable objectives have been set in the compartments of measurable impact within the period and assess what the insurance uptake beep would be. The Team along with industry risk carriers have an obligation to strengthen Nigeria’s insurance sector through advocacy, awareness, capacity building and inclusive growth.
Also in the tall order of the programme is the 25 million citizens to be drenched with insurance literacy and financial education. Not limited to the vast potential public alone, it has a primary objective to train 6000 insurance professionals, intermediaries and agents.
Also being circled with high interest is gender inclusion. Presently women participation in insurance purchase is 32%. What is on the agenda now is to increase to 40% female participation as both policyholders and industry professionals.
Youth engagement is also inching up. At below 2o% now, is to increase youth customer participation among Nigerians aged 18 – 35 to 30% through digital-first approaches. A significant segment in this age bracket are the digital natives, and the crystal approach would be to leverage insurtech innovation and digital platforms. In addition to this the team is focused on creating youth-focused career pathways.
Loaded in these measurable interventions and multi-stakeholder action is to connect 250,000 MSMEs to affordable and relevant insurance solutions. Another achievement to attain is introducing pilot innovative climate-risk and climate-insurance products across the value chain.
With no good numbers for the Team to rely on, the they are adequately inflated to move along the undulating way to the destination that gives fulfilment that at that end of the measurable time frame their coming together to transform Nigeria’s insurance sector has led into a stronger engine for resilience, inclusion and prosperity
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