NIC, NIA to build capacity of Insurance Agents

Accra, Dec. 18, GNA - The National Insurance Commission (NIC) in collaboration with its partners have commenced a six-day training workshop for players in the insurance industry in Kumasi.

The workshop, which is in partnership with the Programme for Sustainable Economic Development (PSED) of the German Development Co-operation (GIZ), is to boost the capacity of insurance agents in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions.

The event, which started on Monday, December 18, will end on Saturday December 23, 2017.

A statement from the organisers said the event would see both life and non-life insurance agents, insurance brokers, Bancassurance and micro-insurance agents build their capacity on principles governing insurance, knowledge of the insurance industry, selling techniques, principles of customer knowledge, complaints handling techniques, and other relevant areas.

It said 250 agents from 30 life insurance companies; 27 non-life insurance companies; 45 insurance brokers; six micro-insurance companies, and three Bancassurance companies would participate.

It said insurance penetration in Ghana was very low and some of the major causes of the low patronage of insurance was inadequate public education on the benefits and general negative perception the public has of insurance industry.

It said according to the NIC, the current insurance penetration (the number of the population who own an insurance policy) was less than two per cent.

The statement said this figure was very low compared to the risk factors that Ghanaians were exposed to on a daily basis.

The statement said this year alone, various fires in many markets have seen traders losing millions of Ghana cedis. Unfortunately some of these market traders did not insure their wares.

It said the training was to help build the capacity of the agents and officers in the insurance distribution channel to enable them boost insurance coverage in their respective areas of operation to cushion clients, who face emergencies like fire.

The statement said the capacity building project would be rolled in phases to cover the entire country.

The statement said Laine Services Limited were the Project Consultants, whilst GIZ were the Project partners and sponsors.

Meanwhile, Mr Kingsley Kwesi Kwabahson, Acting CEO of the Ghana Insurance Association (GIA) and Mr Wilson Tei of the Ghana Insurance Awareness Coordinators Group (IACG) would be the Project Managers for the capacity training programme.

Mr Isaac Agyapong, Technical Advisor at the GIZ, said “As a development partner, the GIZ works to promote sustainable economic development in the countries in which they operate."

He said Insurance was important to providing a safety net especially for the poorer segments of society, "naturally, you may not know when a disaster will occur, so it is better to have some form of insurance policy in place for that unfortunate disaster and have some protection, hence the reason GIZ is part of the programme.”

Other partners are GIA, The Ghana Insurance Brokers Association (GIBA), and (IACG)

GNA

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