The Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, has charged players in the insurance industry to do more to deepen knowledge on insurance products and their importance.
The Vice-President said insurance companies should, therefore, move away from chasing the few corporate businesses, although lucrative they think outside the box and introduce innovative and relevant insurance products through market research.
He said that was necessary because for an industry which was essential for every person, its penetration was very low even among middle-income workers and needed to be encouraged.
The Vice-President made the call in Accra last Friday in a speech read on his behalf to inaugurate the offices of NEM Insurance Ghana Ltd, a subsidiary of NEM Insurance Nigeria PLC.
Mr Mahama said deepening insurance awareness and product penetration would also depend on good market research that would help the companies to design products to suit the real needs of the Ghanaian populace.
�And this strategy is all the more compelling because another known fact today is that Africa�s contribution of insurance premium to the global market is reported to be less than two per cent,� the vice president stated.
In Ghana, the total gross insurance premium as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is very low at 1.57 per cent. This is because of the large informal sector.
The Vice-President said the more the industry players went after profitable corporate business insurance, Africa would continue to lag behind in the patronage of insurance products.
�If we continue to run after corporate and institutional business because this is the easier option that guarantees profitability, this quota will only dwindle even further,� Mr Mahama stressed.
The Vice-President urged players in the insurance industry to take a cue from the national Health Insurance Scheme, in which, he said, �with all its much-trumpeted bottlenecks, many fringe communities see a real solution to their basic health care needs and, therefore, are prepared to contribute their widow�s mite in order to gain access�.
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