Mercy Nwoji
Issues disturbing the Nigerian insurance industry in the digital age formed the main impetus for deliberations in this year’s edition of the Insurance Professionals Forum organized by the Chartered Institute of Nigerian Insurance (CIIN) in Abeokuta. Ogun State.
At the forum that drew those in the insurance industry in Nigeria, the Commissioner of Insurance, Mr. Olurundar Sunday Thomas urged insurers to develop new technologies that can help in faster claims processing and distribution channels in their operations to ensure clients the best experience.
Addressing the forum’s professionals, he added that he was optimistic that after the forum of the year, the industry would be aware of the need to encourage disruptive growth – through reprioritization and cultural change.
“Cultural changes from traditional products to customer-centric biases, investment in disrupting our traditional business model, matching current workforces with future needs – the skills that will be critical in the future are likely to be very different and current roles are likely to require broader skill sets in future, he said.
He called on insurance operators to develop talent for disruptive innovations, which create a new market and value network, and ultimately disrupt the existing market and value network.
“Adopting disruptive technology (cloud computing, mobile technology, artificial intelligence, blockchain, IoT) as a minimum, developing new products, enabling better customer experience, developing new distribution channels, automating processes, pursuing faster claims processing, and deploying data analytics. Ensuring Information Security The insurance industry needed to quickly catch up with new technology, innovations, the changing environment (from traditional to digital), developments and changing customer expectations.
“We are in the digital world and we can no longer play an ostrich by being less digital in our operations. The only constant thing is change and there is a need to quickly join the digital bandwagon to transform our industry.” He said
In his welcome address, Governor of Ogun State, Prince Kabu Abiodun, stated that the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic require the need to upgrade digitization in insurance operations.
He said, “The insurance industry must innovate new products and services that meet the ever embodied pattern of this virtual economy driven by artificial intelligence. We must realize that just as there are risks in traditional operations, there are also risks in digital operations hence the need to be rigorously enlightened on proven risks in default transactions.
He assured the management of the professional body (CIIN) that his administration will continue to keep its doors open to all aspects of cooperation.
“We have unveiled a third party auto insurance online platform, and this platform is one of our steps to enforce mandatory insurance, this will create value for all stakeholders, we want our employees to easily buy real third party insurance, and eliminate fake insurance certificate Claim and claims payment, this platform is open to all insurance companies operating in Ogun State.
He said that the committee has started implementing its comprehensive health insurance scheme, adding that the plan specifically aims to enable all sectors to commit to the new out-of-pocket expenditures as well as increase access to health insurance regardless of social and economic status.
Also speaking, Mr. Ekerete Ola Gam-Ikon suggested that insurance companies sell insurance products in local languages to aid understanding and acceptance of insurance especially micro-insurance which is designed for the informal sector.
