Emma Okonji
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) stakeholders in Nigeria are set to dialogue with their counterparts in the insurance industry to generate ideas on how to use ICT to drive insurance penetration in Nigeria and develop appropriate framework for implementing such ideas.
The ICT and Insurance experts will on March 23, gather in Ikeja for an E-Insurance Conference with the theme: “Driving Insurance Penetration with Information and Communication Technologies.”
“ The conference is expected to bring together corporate organisations, ICT experts, insurance experts, academia, consumers of insurance products and regulators of both ICT and Insurance industries, to discuss how to use technology to deepen insurance penetration in Nigeria. The conference, the first of its kind in the country, is been organised by Pinet Informatics Limited, the first Internet Service Provider in Nigeria, in collaboration with major stakeholders in Insurance and ICT industries.”
Managing Director of Pinet Informatics, Lanre Ajayi, explained that the event will bring together practitioners in the insurance industry and that of Information and Communication Technology to share experience, brainstorm, network, and conclude deals.
According to Ajayi, the Insurance industry is a vital part of the Nigerian economy but the industry is not living up to its full potential saying, “there are less than 1.5 million insurance policy holders in Nigeria out of a population of 170 million, which translates to 0.9 per cent insurance penetration.” “When compared to 23 per cent bank accounts penetration, 105 per cent of telephone penetration and 55 per cent of Internet penetration, then, there is a lot of room for improvement in the insurance industry and this could be achieved by deploying the right technology, “Ajayi said.
“The Nigeria insurance industry can be turned around if the industry transit to a technology driven one, the same way the banking industry got transformed through the infusion of information and communication technology in its service delivery processes,” he added.
Ajayi , who is the former President of Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), said after the conference, there would be one week training workshop on e-Insurance for staff of insurance companies.
