NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, February 6, 2017

Long before Nigeria was finally plunged into recession last year, it has been pretty challenging to get Nigerians to appreciate the benefits inherent in insurance products, with the sector contributing a meager 0.6 per cent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Due to the high level of apathy, the industry has not grown at par with the other financial services sub-sectors like banking and capital market, and has therefore remained the weakest link among them.

A recent survey by the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), revealed that about 86.6 million Nigerians do not have any form of insurance cover, while 1.3 million adults or 1.5 per cent of the entire adult population maintain some category of formal insurance cover.

As a result, industry stakeholders are concerned over the state of the sector, especially as it has been in existence for close to a century and should have fared much better, compared to its peers in the developed economies.

Efforts by operators to reduce lack of interest and boost patronage have not yielded much fruits, with many proffering various theories for such indifference.