The National Insurance Commission (NIC) has disclosed that 1.8 billion cedis was paid as claims by insurance companies across the country in 2021
According to the Commission, this amount was paid out of a total of 2.05 billion cedis worth of claims last year.
This was revealed by Dr. Justice Ofori, the NIC Commissioner in a speech read on his behalf at the Insurance Claims Testimonial Campaign Launch, themed “Insurance Pays” in Accra.
“We are aware that public perception about our industry regarding claims payment is not a positive one. Hence it is important for us to prove them wrong because insurance indeed pays and our campaign seeks to do just that.”
“It may interest the public to know that our industry made good its share of GHS 1.8 billion worth of claims out of a total of GHS 2.05 in 2021. The amount was GHS 500 million in excess of the previous year’s figure of GHS1.3 billion,” he said.
Delivering the keynote address, the Head of Pensions & Insurance at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Patience Abban lauded the testimonial campaign due to the low patronage and disinterest in insurance in the country.
She said: “Insurance penetration in the country remains ultimately low. Insurance penetration in Ghana has been slightly over 1% since December 2019 while the aggregate for insurance penetration in Africa stood at 2.78%, a true reflection of low insurance penetration in Ghana and Africa.”
“I’m particularly excited about the efforts being made to make insurance appealing to the insuring public. I will also like to commend the IACG on the launch of the ‘Insurance Pays’ campaign as it makes government initiatives, especially the national financial education campaign more relevant.”
Since its inception in 2015, the Insurance Awareness Coordinators Group (IACG), which is made up of the National Insurance Commission (NIC), Ghana Insurers Association (GIA), Insurance Brokers Association of Ghana (IBAG), The National Association of Ghana Insurance Agents (NAGIA) and Chartered Insurance Institute of Ghana (CIIG) has built local institutional capacity to foster generic understanding of insurance through education that results in an increase in insurance uptake in Ghana.
Speaking at the launch, Wilson Tei, Chairman of the IACG said the campaign seeks to develop customers’ interest and trust in insurance in Ghana.
“The campaign is broadly targeted at corporate institutions, unions, and the youth working in both formal and informal sector. It will be designed to reach out to both literate and non-English speaking persons and take account of regional and cultural differences.”
‘Insurance Pays’, seeks to grow insurance uptake in Ghana by demystifying and removing the mistrust that surrounds the insurance claims process and these are intended to be achieved using various activities on television, radio and online.
The campaign, dubbed the ‘Insurance Pays’ campaign, will run from March to July 2022 on TV, radio and digital.
On television, there will be recorded testimonials of insurance claims beneficiaries and a carefully curated talk show named ‘Recovery Stories’. The ‘Recovery Stories’ highlight stories of real-life beneficiaries and insights from industry experts.
On radio, there will be another carefully curated radio drama series named ‘No.1 Aberewa Street’, which will help explain the insurance claims process to Ghanaians. The ‘No.1 Aberewa Street’ will air in English, Hausa, Ga, Ewe, Twi and Dagbani across various radio stations in all sixteen regions.
On digital, we will complement the television and radio shows with live educational sessions, featuring industry experts on all social media platforms and an online comic series on insurance claims processing.
It will also seek broad engagement by leveraging the media community and focused PR to amplify the conversations and educate the general public on the key actions within the insurance claims process such as Notify! Submit! Get Paid!
