- FG’ll Ensure Workers Have Life Insurance — Oyo-Ita
The Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita, has said that the Federal Government will ensure the insurance of its workers because they are important assets to the country.
She said this during the Insurance Industry Consultative Council’s 2019 National Insurance Conference in Abuja.
Oyo-Ita said, “The Civil Service is a great asset of the Federal Government and improving this asset is of relevance. The Group Life Insurance Policy is one of the welfare packages towards ensuring a well-motivated workforce.
“The GLIP was inaugurated in 2008, and ensures 300 per cent of workers’ remuneration and compensation to relatives in the advent of the demise of a worker, and we will ensure the future success of the GLIP.”
The Commissioner for Insurance, Mohammed Kari, said the National Insurance Conference provided a veritable platform for top government functionaries, investors, insurance practitioners and other stakeholders to discuss contemporary issues affecting the development of the insurance industry in Nigeria.
He said, “The insurance business model, which essentially entails evaluation and assumption of risk, accumulation of premiums and settlement of claims, has largely remained the same since the first policy was sold in London in 1861.
“The theme of this year’s conference: “Disruption, innovation and business growth,” is, therefore, very pertinent against the backdrop of the need for the Nigerian insurance industry to remain relevant in an era of dynamism where operating, in the same way, is an assured route to irrelevance.”
Kari said that the need for radical reforms had been accentuated by the disruptive impact on the insurance industry of a series of digital innovations in areas such as online sales technologies, machine learning, the Internet of Things, advanced analytics and virtual reality, among others.
While these new technologies were already making it easier for consumers/policyholders to benefit from superior service and more choices as well as lower prices, there were corresponding challenges, he noted.
“For example, cyber risk and crimes, determination of liability in a driverless car accident, emergence of inter-sectoral competitors as well as disruptive social and technological changes,” Kari said.
In order to remain relevant and become a critical contributor to the national economy, he said the industry must consciously be proactive and organised so as to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the disruptive developments while at the same time curbing their corresponding negative impacts.
He said it was important to note that firms would only benefit from digital technology only if they embraced its potential along the entire insurance value chain, including underwriting and claims management.
Kari said, “This would, therefore, entail a rethink of the industry’s business strategy and alignment of its operational practices to contemporary economic context such as the Economic Recovery Growth Programme of the Federal Government, sustainable and inclusive insurance as well as exploiting the benefits of the implementation of the second phase of the Market Development and Restructuring Initiative, among others.”
