In the quest to embrace technology that will drive product distribution and access for increased penetration in the insurance industry, players have urged to come together and invest in the project.
Experts who gave the advice at the 2019 Insurance Professional Forum held in Abeokuta, Ogun State said there in no reinventing the wheels, but that insurers should copy what banks did after their recapitalization in 2005.
“After the recapitalization of banks, they came together and in invested in Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) as well as Interswitch, which has today benefited everybody in financial technology (FinTech)”.
Discussing on the sub-theme ‘Impact of technology on product development and market’, Yele Okeremi, speaker and joined by Femi Aderibigbe, with Yetunde Ilori, chairing identified embracing technology as not an option but a must to move the insurance industry forward.
Tope Smart, chairman of the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) during the question and answer session queried on whether or not insurers are ready to embrace technology.
For him, the industry was not yet ready because, first of all, it must cure unethical practice and embrace professionalism.
According to him, technology cannot thrive in an environment where rates are brought down and unhealthy competition is raging.
“Our business is very technical, and ethical practice is very key”, we need to prioritize the issue of professionalism for us to get on track with technology, Smart said.
Yeside Oyetayo, rector, College of Insurance and Financial Management said technology should look at the bottom pyramid, which is the micro insurance aspect of insurance products.
According to her, this should drive sales around the start-ups and small scale businesses that need insurance to protect their assets, activities and health.
