Insurance Professionals Deliberate on Nigerian Insurance Sector in Digital Age

Ebere Nwoji

Issues bothering on the Nigerian Insurance industry in the digital age formed the main thrust of deliberations at this year’s edition of the Insurance professionals’ forum organised by the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) at Abeokuta. Ogun State.

At the forum which attracted who is who in the insurance industry in Nigeria, the Commissioner for Insurance, Mr. Olorundare Sunday Thomas, urged insurers to develop new technologies that could aid in fast tracking claims processing and distribution channels in their operations to guarantee better customer experience.

While addressing the professionals at the forum, he added that he was optimistic that after the year’s forum, the Industry would be abreast of the need to encourage disruptive growth – through a reordering of priorities and cultural change.

“Cultural changes from traditional products offering to customer-centric biases, investing in disrupting our traditional business model, matching current workforce with future Needs – the skills that will be critical in the future will likely be quite different and existing roles will likely require broader skill sets in the future, “he stated.

He called on insurance operators to develop talents for disruptive innovations, that create a new market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network.

“Adopt disruptive technology (cloud computing, mobile technology, artificial intelligence, block chain, internet of things) at the minimum, develop new products, enable better customer experience, develop new channels of distribution, automate processes, pursue faster claims processing, deploy data analytics and ensure information security. The insurance industry needed to catch up quickly with new technology, innovations, changing environment (from traditional to digital), developments and changing customer expectation.

“We are in the digital world and can no longer be playing the ostrich by being less digital in our operations. The only constant thing is change and there is need to quickly join the digital wagon to bring transformation to our industry.” he said

In his welcome address, Governor of Ogun State, Prince Capo Abiodun, stated that the challenges posed by the COVID- 19 pandemic called for the need to upgrade the digitalisation processes in insurance operations.

He said, “The insurance industry must come up with new products and services that will meet the ever involving pattern of this virtual, artificial intelligence driven economy. We must realise that just as there are risk in the traditional processes there are also risk in the digital processes hence the need for rigorous enlightenment of proven risk in virtual transaction.”

He assure the management of the professional body (CIIN) that his administration would continue to keep its doors open to all collaborations.
“We unveiled an online platform for third party motor insurance, this platform is one of our steps to enforce compulsory insurance, this should create value for all stakeholders, we want our people to easily buy geniune third party insurance, eliminate fake insurance certificate and prompt payment of claims, this platform is open to all insurance companies operating in Ogun State, “he stated.

He said the commission had commenced the implementation of its universal health insurance scheme, adding that the scheme was particularly to enable all sectors adhere to the new out of pocket expenditure and also increase the access of health insurance regardless of socioeconomic status.

Also Speaking, an administrator, a business thinker and customer advocate currently involved in sharing advisory services on insurance and risk management, Mr Ekerete Ola Gam-Ikon suggested that insurers should sell insurance products in local languages to aid understanding and acceptance of insurance especially micro insurance which was designed for the informal sector.