By Godwill Arthur-Mensah, GNA
Accra, Feb. 16, GNA - The Insurance Awareness Coordinators Group of Ghana (IACG) and other key stakeholders will from Monday, February 19 begin a nationwide insurance sensitisation campaign to create awareness on the need to subscribe to insurance policies.
At a media briefing in Accra, on Friday to launch the programme, Mr Wilson Tei, the Chairman of the IACG, said insurance is the most effective tool to address financial losses and urged the public to avail themselves to insurance policies that would remedy them in times of emergencies.
He said the most effective remedy for financial disruption was insurance protection, adding that insurance industry existed so that, all other industries could be sustained.
Mr Tei said the programme would start from Monday, February 19 and end on February 24, on 21 radio station nationwide, to bring knowledge of insurance protection and risk management to Ghanaians.
The campaign is being organised by the IACG, Ghana Insurers Association, Ghana Insurance Brokers Association and National Insurance Commission, in collaboration with the Programme for Sustainable Economic Development of the German Development Cooperation (GIZ).
Mr Tei said there would be insurance practitioners who would be on the selected media platforms to explain insurance issues and misconceptions and take concerns from the public to help address them.
The education campaign, he said, would enable the public to know and understand their obligations and rights whenever they purchase any insurance policy.
It would also deepen insurance awareness and penetration including consumer protection, customer care, efficient marketing and handling of recourse needs of clients in the market, he said.
Mr Tei entreated the public to take advantage of the education programme and speak to the insurance experts who would be on the media outlets to explain insurance issues to the public.
“We’re not representing any insurance company, we’re representing the insurance industry so we don’t own allegiance to any particular company.
“And so we‘re open to take any criticisms and maltreatment anybody has suffered from any insurance company and tackle them, and we can promise you that, we will bring this to the knowledge of the company and to the Regulator,” he said.
Mr Justice Yaw Ofori, the Commissioner of Insurance, on his part, said there is less than two percent insurance penetration in Ghana, and in the next three years, the Commission intends to increase it to a double digit.
To this end, he said, it would increase insurance awareness among the populace and extend insurance to small-scale businesses and agriculture sector, as well as encourage insurance companies to develop insurance products that meet the needs of consumers.
Mr Ofori said consumer protection and prompt payment of claims to policyholders would also enhance insurance penetration.
“We are interested in insurance education and we do that in collaboration with the industry, and so the timing for this insurance sensitisation could not have been better than now.
“We believe that as we go ahead with the education campaign, it would not be a nine-day wonder but would be sustained,” he said.
Mr Ofori said the Commission has proposed an amendment to the Insurance Act 2006 (Act 724), so that some obsolete provisions in the law would be reviewed to address concerns of the contemporary insurance market.
He said it would enforce insurance on commercial properties as well as compulsory insurance for lawyers, accountants, medical doctors and other professionals to have Professional Indemnity Insurance.
He said in other jurisdictions compulsory insurance existed so that, if any professional makes a mistake in the course of his or her work, the victim would be adequately compensated.
“For instance, if a medical doctor prescribes wrong medication for a client and the person suffers ailment or dies, who does he or she go to for compensation?” he queried.
The National Insurance Commission regulates activities of insurance in the country and ensure level playing field in the industry.
It issues licences to insurance brokers, agents, re-insurers, and also offers directives to the insurance practitioners to ensure that there is sanity in the insurance market.
The Commission has good relations with other regulators as well as ensuring stronger alliances with the International Insurance Association Supervisors.
GNA
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