The Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) reported on Tuesday that the nation’s insurance sector recorded 33.9% surge in premium volume in financial year 2022, posting N726.2 billion growth compared to the N569.1 billion premium income recorded in 2021
The NIA Chairman, Mr. Olusegun Omosehin, made this disclosure during the association’s 52nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Lagos
The risk underwriting expert noted that despite the economic downtown in the country, the nation’s insurance sector continued to grow and thereby improving its contributions to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on yearly basis.
He explained: “As a subset of the national financial system, the insurance industry also had a fair dose of the general economic and socio-political problems bedeviling the country in the past year.
“Perennial power outages, herders and farmers conflicts, kidnapping, banditry poor infrastructural facilities, increasing poverty, galloping inflation, flooding, and other natural catastrophes. Also, geometric rise in the exchange rate of the business resulting in high cost of operations.
“Notwithstanding these challenges, insurance companies continue to discharge their obligations as financial intermediation and restorer of businesses in line with their mandate”, the NIA Chairman added.
According to him, the NIA is also collaborating with the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and other stakeholders within the financial services and technology segments to promote the business of insurance.
Omosehin explained that the collaboration was geared toward increasing the sector’s contribution to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which will lead to improved insurance penetration and density.
He recalled that the Consolidated Insurance Bill 2020 was not signed into law during the 9th Assembly, despite the efforts made by the association and other stakeholders and lauded the Energy and Allied Insurance Pool of Nigeria (EAIPN), for improving the local capacity and reduces premium flight in oil and gas industry’s risk underwriting.
In her remarks, the Director-General of the association, Mrs. Yetunde Ilori, said that during the financial year 2022, the NIA collaborated on a joint project with the Lagos State Vehicle Inspection Service (VIS), which was mandatory based on extant laws through the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) device of VIS and the Nigerian Insurance Industry Database (NIID), verification platform of NIA.
