Ebere Nwoji
The new Managing Director of Linkage Assurance Plc, Mr. Pius Apere, has said that exploration of retail insurance market by insurance industry operators has remained the appropriate solution to the growth need of the insurance industry.
Apere, who stated this at the public presentation of some retail insurance products designed by his company in Lagos, said for a very long time, insurance managers and their distributors, have dwelled so much on traditional distribution channel such as insurance brokers.
He said unfortunately, this has not ensured proper distribution of insurance, as brokers, mainly market corporate and huge policy account, leaving the retail market, which is supposed to drive the industry’s growth unattended to.
“The way out is to do things different; retail market is the only way for insurance industry growth, it has not been tapped for a very long time, we have a population of over 180 million people but we have not taken advantage of this huge population to grow insurance as we can see that less than one percent of this huge population is insured, this goes to show that many Nigerians lack insurance awareness”, he said.
He said Linkage Assurance, has positioned itself to tap into this opportunity through an array of retail products it has pumped into the market.
According to him, these products have been designed to cater for the needs of its target consumers and are pocket friendly.
Introducing the products to the audience, Head, Strategy & Business Development, Linkage Assurance, Mr. Imo Imo, highlighted some of the products as Linkage Shop Insurance Cover, Linkage Citadel Shield Plan, Linkage Comprehensive Plan among others.
He described Linkage Shop Insurance Cover as ideal protection plan for small shop, pharmacies, shopping malls, plazas and supermarket owners.
According to him, the policy, features Fire and Burglary, Goods-in- Transit, personal Accident, Fidelity Guarantee, and public liability.
He said the policy includes an extension to cover cost of alternative rent caused by an insured event of fire and allied peril.
Imo, said Linkage Citadel Shield plan is a scheme designed for primary, secondary and university students to cover the risk of adverse financial consequences resulting from accidents that occur during academic session.
According to him, this cover can either be taken by a group of individuals or the management of the school on behalf of their student.
The policy, according to him, features injuries due to accident, medical expenses, permanent and temporary disabilities.
Linkage SME comprehensive plan he said, is insurance for small and medium enterprise business.
This is designed by the company specifically to meet the insurance needs of Small and medium sized businesses, office/ retail outlets,
The policy features include hotels, hospitals, printers/ publishers Logistitics companies, cottage industries, salons and spas among others.
