By Meletus EZE
The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) on Sunday, said that a total of N145 billion was paid as claims to policy holders by insurance companies in the third quarter.
The Deputy Commissioner for Insurance, Technical, Mr Sunday Thomas, made this known in Lagos.
According to Thomas, the figure represents a 30 per cent increase compared with N110 billion paid in the same period of 2017.
He said the commission also anticipated that the figure would increase than N145 billion in the fourth quarter, “when the claims paid in the quarter are added’’.
Thomas explained further that the Gross Premium (GP) generated by insurance industry during the period under review stood at N315 billion.
“This represents a 22 per cent increase over the N258 billion GP in the third quarter of 2017,’’ he said.
Thomas said that financial inclusion was one of the tools used by the commission to shoot up insurance penetration.
“The initiative is premised on the fact that getting the mass of the financially-excluded to embrace insurance in one form or another will have a positive impact.
“The commission has started seeing the impact.
“However, insurance companies are still encouraged to take up micro-insurance licence in order to develop the market more.
“The Takaful Market is still grossly under-accessed by the public. There is, therefore, the need for aggressive promotion in aid of financial inclusion, ‘’ Thomas said.
