Experts task Nigerians to embrace insurance, pension for meaningful life
Insurance and Pension have been described as veritable plans that all Nigerians should embrace if they want to live meaningful life.
The former Director-General, Lagos State Pension Commission (LASPEC), Mrs. Folashade Onanuga, made this submission while delivering a paper at the sixth edition of the national conference of the National Association of Insurance and Pension Correspondent (NAIPCO) held recently in Lagos themed “COVID-19 Impact On Financial Inclusion: Opportunities For Insurance & Pension Sectors”.
Onanuga harped on the need for Nigerians to embrace insurance and pension and charged insurance and pension operators to be deliberately creative and innovative in their product development and services delivery, by ensuring that they focus on meeting the needs of the people,.
She added that “people will embrace the products and services that meet their need. The critical thing is meeting the need.”
She lamented that the social security system in Nigeria is next to zero; so you need to plan for yourself so that if anything happens, you need to be able to stand.
She pointed out that in this era of the COVID-19 pandemic, insurance, and pension is what Nigerians need to lean on for a hopeful future.
Mrs. Onanuga said “The World Bank estimates that the COVID-19 crisis will result in 10.9 million Nigerians falling into poverty by January 2022. If we have learned anything, the pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis have highlighted the critical need for a functioning social security system to allow all Nigerians to achieve an adequate standard of living,
“If you really want to remain in business, you must take insurance, in the event of sudden occurrence like the pandemic, insurance will help you to stand back on your feet; in the event of you finding that because of the pandemic a breadwinner of a family dies, there must be a buffer to ensure that the family is not affected.
“Therefore, more than ever before, you find out that actually there is need for both insurance and pension products to ensure that we continue to live and meet our need of sustainable living, healthy living, wealthy living, and of course, continuity in business. That is why it is important for all of us to identify that we have these needs for growth and continuity by taking up both insurance and pension products”.
The Director General, National Pension Commission (PenCom), Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar, who was represented by the Commission’s Head, Corporate Communications, Mr. Peter Aghahowa, highlighted on the need for Nigerians to embrace contributory pension, as a social security safety net.
Aghahowa said the issue of gathering retirees physically in various locations across the country for verification is now a thing of the past with the online verification and enrolment portal recently launched by the Commission.
According to him, “Before now, we would congregate several retirees in different centers of the country to do the enrolment for the Treasury Funded retirees, and now that can be done online.
“I’m happy to announce that over 3,000 people have been enrolled through our online portal out of 11,000 expected to retire this year.
The Chief Executive Officer, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Olorundare Sunday Thomas, who was represented by the Commissioner for Insurance and Assistant Director, Market Development, Adeyemi Abubakar, while congratulating the NAIPCO members, for their consistency in organizing the conference, urged Nigerians in all walks of life to embrace insurance as a risk-mitigating mechanism.
The Commissioner for Insurance expressed his delight that NAIPCO has remained as a platform to reach out to the public with their reportage on the insurance sector as well as ensure the growth of the insurance business in Nigeria.
He pointed out that for the Nigerian insurance market to record significant growth and contribute adequately to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) all hands must be on deck, including the media in sensitizing the public on the benefits of insurance.
Accordingly, he said that deepening insurance penetration can only be possible through a deliberate and sustained insurance awareness that could lead to the realization of the Federal Government’s financial inclusion initiative.
