The Commissioner of Insurance, Dr. Justice Ofori, has pledged that his outfit will continue to support innovative ideas by firms in the insurance and banking sector who partner to promote good bancassurance products in the country.
Therefore, it behoves on various banks and insurance companies to begin to chart a new path of innovation and diversity that will promote insurance coverage in the Ghanaian economy, Dr. Ofori said, adding that this will go a long way to help improve insurance penetration which is currently hovering at a low rate of 1 percent.
Dr. Justice Ofori made these comments while speaking at the launch of the bancassurance partnership between Cal Bank and Saham Insurance. Endorsing the partnership, he called on the two entities to ensure they perform a diligent work to engender the trust of customers sign unto the bancassurance policy to build the insurance sector.
The NIC Commissioner further asserted that the contribution of the bancassurance sub-sector is increasingly growing and has made a significant impact on the insurance industry. Although bancassurance has contributed to about 10 percent of the growth in Ghana’s insurance industry, there is more room for improvement. Hence, the need to develop new products.
“The National Insurance Commission is ready to support any innovation that will improve insurance coverage in the country and we are solidly behind the banks and insurance companies with any good bancassurance product.
“Today, the bancassurance distribution channel accounts for approximately 10% of annual insurance premiums payment.
“The commission is supportive of bancassurance products as it has many years ago and we believe that it will improve the penetration level if technology is introduced into such products.”
Dr. Justice Ofori
Accordingly, the newly unveiled partnership between Cal Bank and Saham Insurance is going to serve as a vehicle for the improvement of insurance penetration in the country as a result of the role the bank will be playing in ensuring its customers understand the insurance policy packages being offered by Saham in order to patronize an insurance product.
Also, Cal bank and Saham insurance has revealed that the bancassurance product has been made available to customers on the bank’s digital platforms. Although the policy is targeted at customers of the bank, it is particularly focused on the small and medium-scale enterprises sector.
Highlighting the category of customers to be insured under the new bancassurance policy, the Managing Director of Cal bank Accra, Philip Owiredu disclosed that “This product is made available to all our customers, but particularly, home owners, car owners and the Small and Medium Enterprises, due to the kind of operations they are involved in”.
Mabel Porbley, Managing Director of Saham Insurance sharing her thoughts also assured the customers of enhanced offerings and customer-centric services under the new partnership.
In a nutshell, it is important that both parties clearly define the benefits of the insurance policies to their existing and prospective clients to engender the trust of the general public to sign on to new packages introduced.
