The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) on Wednesday hinted that plans were ongoing to introduce micro takaful insurance in Kano State as a means of providing an accepted and accessible insurance system for the largely Muslim populace in the state.
The industry regulator’s Head of the Microinsurance Unit, Hajia Aisha Bashir, made the disclosure at a sensitization workshop for micro, small and medium enterprises on the need for microinsurance.
She explained: “Our presence and activity today in Kano has created the demand for takaful companies of which there are now only four in Kano. We are now going to design more products that are tailored to the needs of these people who are now needy of Takaful Insurance.
“We are not just creating demand, we are also going to strengthen the supply side as well. We will bring products for them to buy and enlightenment them the more”, the insurance expert added.
Bashir, while speaking at the event jointly organized by the NAICOM and Star Sapphire Foundation, said that “at the end of the workshop, we hope to achieve widespread insurance penetration into the largely conservative populace. Already there is awareness now and more people will soon join the system as more and more get aware of the product. We will ensure that as NAICOM we deliver value”
According to her, since the interest of the people in Kano is micro Takaful NAICOM will make it available to them.
The risk underwriter assured: “The interest of the public here is micro takaful and we will come up with the micro takaful regulations. That is what they want. What we do at NAICOM is to segment our customers. They have heard of the microinsurance but they don’t want the conventional type, they want micro takaful and as a fall out of this event we are quickly going to role out the micro takaful for them”
In his remarks at the forum, a representative of the Star Sapphire Foundation, Alhassan Haruna, noted that Kano remained the most populated state in the country with about 60 percent of the people engaging in businesses, there was the need to provide them the insurance products and services to mitigate their risks, particularly those associated with fire outbreaks in markets.
He said: “Kano is the most populated state in the North, with about 60 percent of which is made up of businesspeople of micro, small, medium and large scales, that is why we are beginning from Kano.
“A lot of youth groups and organizations have been invited so that they come and get enlightened about insurance. Our people are left behind in insurance because of our religious concepts of believing that all protection can only come from God Almighty”, Haruna added.
He explained that takaful insurance represented an agreement in which members of a group or association contribute funds based on an agreement such that if anything happens to any of their members he gets resuscitated.
