By Bisi Bamishe
Experts said one of the ways to attract those in the informal sector to participate in Insurance and pension plan is to introduce encouraging and attractive incentives.
Dr. Chinyere Almona, Director General/Chief Executive Officer, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), made the call in Lagos while delivering the theme paper “On-boarding Small and Medium Scale Enterprises into Micro Insurance and Pension Space in Nigeria.” at the 7th Annual Conference of the National Association of Insurance and Pension Editors (NAIPE).
“Although the Insurance and pension sectors have been doing a lot in driving the financial inclusion initiative of the Federal Government, there is need to incentivize and encourage those in the informal sector, the Nigerian Nanco, Micro, Small and Medium and Enterprises NMSMEs operators to embrace micro insurance and join the micro pension plan”, Almona said.
While calling on Insurance underwriters and pension administrators to take advantage of numerous opportunities that abound in the NMSME sector, Almona said “NMSMEs presents huge opportunity for the micro insurance and pension industry due to the size of the workforce.”
Other opportunities include Large MSMEs employment/labour force, large willing adult population, expanding distribution channels, favourable regulatory environment, mature financial services sector and revolution in information technology and digital innovations.
On the need to step up awareness and enlightenment of the NMSMEs on the benefits of micro insurance and micro pension and application of technology Almona said, “investment in enlightenment campaigns and enabling technology are required.”
The benefits according to her, include a safety net at retirement, alignment with the current social empowerment programmes, minimizes old-age poverty, Improves standard of living for the elderly.
While calling on the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and the National Pension Commission (PenCom) to provide necessary regulatory framework that supports NMSMEs, she said, “With regulatory support, Nigeria is well placed to achieve meaningful micro-pension coverage rapidly as well as enhance insurance penetration”.
In the Keynote address, the Director-General, National Pension Commission (PenCom), Mrs Aisha Dahir-Umar who was represented at the occasion by the Head, South West Office of PenCom, Dr Tunde Alayande said that the on-boarding SMEs into the Micro Pension scheme is one of the strategies in which the pension industry has been contributing to the financial inclusion initiative of the Federal Government.
According to her, micro pension plan was designed for those in the informal sector including the SMEs.
Alayande disclosed that PenCom in collaboration with the Pension Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp), has come up with lots of initiatives for the SMEs for the benefit of the industry.
Speaking on the micro insurance Industry, Almona lamented that the ratio of insurance assets to gross domestic product (GDP) has remained stagnant at 1%, noting that Microinsurance in Nigeria is at a very early but growing phase.
On the Nigerian micro pension industry, she said the percentage ratio of pension assets to GDP remains low, stating that the total pension contribution remitted by the public sector is slightly higher than that of the private sector which, according to her, further justifies the low penetration of pension in the private sector of the economy.
In his remarks, Chairman of the occasion, Engr, Cyril Ajagu, who stressed the importance of Insurance and pension enjoined Nigerians to take advantage of the benefits of insurance and pension to better their lives.
He said micro Insurance and micro pension were established to hedge against old age poverty.
Ajagu called on the regulators of the two sectors to provide enabling environment for the operators to thrive.
In his goodwill message on behalf of all members of the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), the Chairman , Sugun Omosehin commended NAIPE for the conference., noting that the conference the conference is not only significant to the insurance Insurance Industry but also to the entire financial services industry.
According to him, the reason personally I am here today is that significant. NAIPE is not only projecting the image of the industry but in such a manner of making people get to understand what we do, what we represent and how he can impact our economy.
