By Ekerete Olawoye Gam-Ikon, MNIM, CPP
Today, of the estimated population of 206 million, only 1.03 million individual policyholders are genuinely captured in the records of the insurance industry in Nigeria, according to the regulatory body, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM). Also, about 60 percent of the current estimates are young people.
By 2050, when the population is projected to hit 401 million, the number of policyholders may remain at less than one percent, if the young Nigerians today do not invest in the insurance sector! We might then just continue to struggle with poverty, recession and maladministration. God forbid!
Call to Action
This call for the younger ones to invest is hinged on my desire to see a better insurance industry that will not only contribute double digit percentile to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but also create and protect the wealth of the citizens.
The wealth of our country is more vested in the people who are equipped to explore and exploit the resources we are endowed with. We have to protect this quantum of wealth through insurance!
Being a business of the future, insurance would always require a pipeline of younger people to make it one of the sectors that sustainably contributes to the growth and development of any country.
Therefore, in Nigeria, the situation needs to change and become one in which more of our younger people are investing in the insurance industry to make it grow with credibility and be transformed, possibly, from the inside.
Areas of Investment
 Ownership of insurance business
First, we should understand that insurance is a business and the opportunity to own one has become expanded with microinsurance. As we had in banking years ago, we can have young insurance professionals come together to seek operational licences for microinsurance firms.
Next, it is no longer news that microinsurance will become the means by which more Nigerians will be captured in the insurance net, so this is the way to go for younger insurance professionals.
There is hope that the regulators will welcome this too.
   Ownership of the Technology that drives insurance
It is already happening that young Nigerians are investors in the tech space. However, the insurance sector needs to welcome more owners who will seize the emerging opportunities to push for higher adoption of insurance by the larger population.
There is an advantage that the investment by young tech geeks in insurance can bring to ensure better livelihood for Nigerians into the future.
 Educational programme that deepen insurance knowledge
One of the best paid professionals in the world are actuaries and Nigeria does not have the number required for today, not to talk about the future.
More young people getting to invest in this area, especially with the encouragement from NAICOM means we can have an enormous pool of actuaries and still export to other parts of the world.
There are other opportunities in underwriting of special risks, claims management and reinsurance that we require more young professionals to get into. With the massive infrastructural development that Nigeria needs, we will need young professionals with the right knowledge and skills.
   Partnerships that promote insurance
As it is seen in the world of entertainment and creative arts, collaborations and partnerships have pushed young people to achieve unimaginable results.
The insurance sector needs such combinations to become the real bedrock for the economic growth and development we desire for Nigeria. A few lessons from other sectors can be applied in the sector to achieve great results that will promote insurance while employment and revenue levels soar at the same time.
Takeaway
It is my view that the next 20-30 years of Nigeria’s economic and political developments will be best managed by younger Nigerians who are in their late 20s and early 30s today if they will aspire and indeed invest in the ways and areas I have pointed out here.
We need such transformational changes that will sustain our growth and boost our position amongst the comity of nations.
Over to you, our insurance whizkids!
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