Nigeria’s Most Difficult Business Sector to Crack

There is no confusion – the most difficult sector in Nigeria to find opportunities is the insurance sector. It is one industry where great ideas have failed to bring value. The progress in the sector remains marginal as about 87 million Nigerians have no form of insurance and only 1.3 million can boast of something including the nearly useless auto insurance 3rd party insurance policy.

Insurance business remains unviable and its products hard to sell in the Nigerian market place. This unpalatable news raised worries for the captains of industry, who gathered at just concluded 2018 Insurance Industry Consultative Council (IICC) in Abuja, few weeks ago.They described the challenge as “bad message” in the ears of insurance companies and allied stakeholders, given the fact that the industry has been in existence in the country for nearly a century.

… “More Nigerians won’t and don’t intend to take up any form of insurance cover if given the choice.”
Outcome of new study

The available records in the industry indicate that 86.6 million Nigerians have no form of insurance, while 1.3 million adults, representing 1.5 per cent of the entire Nigerian adult population, maintain some category of formal insurance cover.

Numbers do not lie: the sector is growing at anemic rate and that is a problem. But there is an opportunity if government can reform the sector, especially on how the business is done, and allow technology to play more significant roles.

The volume of businesses written by insurance companies in the country grew from N315.96 billion in 2016 to about N363 billion in 2017, representing an increase of about 15 per cent over 2016 figure.

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