Tuesday, October 05, 2021 / 09:13 AM / OpEd By Ekerete Ola Gam-Ikon / Header Image Credit: LegitNG

To be honest, conventional insurance is not foreign toour culture or religion, it is the inability of the promoters to use the meansour culture and religion provide that makes it seem very challenging anddifficult to achieve a higher rate of insurance penetration in Nigeria.

First, let us consider our culture. Quite easily, itcan be said that every group or community has a way of doing things, especiallywhen it comes to introducing a new person, thing or place. In most parts ofNigeria, it is the townhall meeting approach that is adopted, where the leadersof the communities gather the people and the visitors or bearers of the newthing are given an opportunity to interact with the people. Thereafter,questions are asked and answers offered with a promise to return at a laterdate.

The people hardly ever forget such outings as thevisitors or promoters often leave behind gifts, in form of souvenirs and/orcommissioned projects.

Otherwise, a different approach have been adoptedwhere the leaders of communities are invited to a certain city centrallylocated, and the new thing unveiled to them, with the commission that theyshould go and enlighten their people.

This is our culture. That you should go out to meetthose you seek patronage from or seek to help.

Next, our religion, majorly Christianity and Islam,which have the tradition of gatherings on days and seasons during the year.

Leaders of the respective religious groups numberingover a thousand across Nigeria are very influential and enjoy the loyalty oftheir members, who would do what they direct, most of the time.

In both cases of culture and religion, the leadersoften feel accountable to their people as the government at different levelswould with citizens.

So, before we ascribe the reasons for low insurancepenetration to culture and religion, the question for our insurance leadershipis: How have you tried to use the soft approaches culture and religion offer topush the acceptance of insurance by the larger population of Nigerians andthereby deepen insurance penetration?

We would need to see those townhall meetings and havereligious leaders speak more about insurance to their congregations before wemaintain the age-long position that culture and religion are impediments to thegrowth of insurance in Nigeria.

No matter how challenging it may seem, we canacknowledge that Pastor Paul Adefarasin, in a widely circulated video,admonished members of House on the Rock to take Life Insurance so they canleave some inheritance for their loved ones. That message did not only bringawareness to many people but doused the apathy of some Christians towardsinsurance.

On the other hand, Takaful (Islamic Insurance) hasbecome increasingly discussed to create the necessary awareness amongstNigerians as the veritable alternative to the conventional insurance.

Islamic scholars know best how to educate Muslimfaithfuls and having to talk about Takaful could not be a challenge.

Insurance companies, their agents, brokers andexecutives would need to look in the direction of our cultural and religiousstructure to expand the drive for inclusive insurance through Microinsuranceand Takaful, the real game-changers for insurance penetration in Nigeria.

Post COVID-19, it has become quite obvious that thereare more opportunities for growth amongst individuals and small businesses, yetthe engagements to make them happen would need to follow the traditionalapproaches explained earlier.

Consequent upon such engagements of people, it wouldbe much easier to introduce the technologies that will enable and drive whathas been built.

So often, when we discuss how the insurance sectorcould scale up, we have mentioned the need to use local languages and theapproach suggested here through culture and religion would be most appropriate.

Using local languages to sell and frame insurancecontracts without the townhall meetings will sound offish to many of ourcommunity people.

Connecting the people in diverse communities with andthrough insurance would be most interesting in this season when financialsupport for child education, house rent, weddings, burials and more have beenreduced to WhatsApp groups where contributions are raised. Also, it has becomeimpracticable to support friends and families due to the current unfavourableeconomic climate and there lies the gap for insurance.

Therefore, insurance companies need to seize theopportunities and engage the people, through cultural and religious leaders, toidentify their challenges (needs) and create/amend products to suit such needs.

Interestingly, Nigerians will be required to do thisfor Nigerians and not anything like the existing products that seem impossibleto slice into affordable bits in terms of prices and durations of covers.

Bringing it all back to the way we live and vibe willsurely make insurance more exciting and I hope this helps to reduce the longlist of inhibitors of the growth and development of insurance in Nigeria andAfrica.

About The Author 

Ekerete Olawoye Gam-Ikon, MNIM,CPP, is a management consultant with a specialization in Strategy andInsurance. You can contact him via e:mail ola[email protected] and mobile +234-806-648-1111.

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