Shaibu Ali, President of the Insurance Brokers Association of Ghana (IBAG) has urged the traders of the new Kejetia Market which was recently caught up in fire to pay small premiums in exchange for comprehensive cover for the content in their shops.
According to the IBAG President, government should not be entirely blamed and held accountable for the loses at the recent Kejetia flare-up as occupants should have insured their wares against the inferno.
“I am sure government or the Metropolitan Authorities own the market and all of that but individuals have rented stores in this market to sell their wares.”
Shaibu Ali
Mr. Ali explained that insuring the market remains the responsibility of the owner, which is the government or the Metropolitan Authorities howbeit, insuring the content of the shops remains the sole responsibility of individuals who have rented shops within the market for business purposes. “So it is pretty straightforward. Government can make a decision that all the market should be insured and they will be done.”
The insurance market or industry in Ghana can insure all the markets put together, meanwhile in addressing the issue of government insuring the contents of these individuals, he expressed confusion about why individuals in Makola, Kejetia, Takoradi market and other business centers decide to operate their businesses without insurance. This he said is “unthinkable in this day and age”, thus, emphasizing the need of these traders to take full responsibility for the content lost.
“Look at the incidence. It happens very often. Insurers are ready to give them cover. The reason why they are not doing it, only God knows. And the premium for these content insurances are not much. They are very very affordable.
“The types of monies that these shop owners make, they can pay for the premiums for a year out of a day’s sales. So there’s no reason why these things should not be insured. Technically, I can say that…the guy was saying that the fire started from maybe a chemical shop. So that will be a little technical but insurers will still give them cover, subject to their preparedness to pay the right price.”
Shaibu Ali
Mr. Ali further noted that the rampancy of fired, particularly market fires has become a usual occurrence that is unavoidable, adding that “we cannot stop them but nothing stops us from insuring them”.
“We should transfer the risk from the owners of the shops and the owners of the markets to the insurance companies. Pay small premiums in exchange for comprehensive cover when these fires happen…”
Shaibu Ali
Meanwhile the 8th edition of the IBAG Educational Conference and Exhibition is slated for the 21st to Saturday the 25th of March, 2023 in Sunyani in the Bono Region with over 200 players in the insurance industry expected to be in attendance to discuss the effects of global economic challenges and the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) on the sector.
Ghana’s insurance industry is under a big threat
Seeing the recent happenings globally, with the devaluation of currencies, inflation, with everything going up out of the roof, the President of IBAG, Shaibu Ali mentioned how these factors indirectly pose a big threat to the insurance industry.
Mr. Ali, thus, called for immediate measures to be taken to avert the probable effects of these factors on the insurance sector.
“If we don’t start to think about how we can come out of this situation, and we fold our hands and sit down, things might get out of hand.
“Now we have Domestic Debt Exchange Programmes, where insurers cannot get their funds for some period of time and all that – these are funds that they would have relied upon to pay claims to claimants. If these funds are inaccessible, what happens? Where do they get monies to pay claims? That is what is engineering this discussion. Let’s get together, sit down, talk and see the way forward…”
Shaibu Ali
Ghana has been on the trajectory of growth as far as confidence in insurance is concerned, he said. According to the IBAG President, years back, people did not have any confidence in the industry but said the confidence has grown significantly in recent times.
“And so once we are able to get the industry back on stream, once the insurance companies are able to figure out a way; how they are going to deal with their claimants and all that, that should, to a large extent impact the confidence of the market.”
Shaibu Ali
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