Pay claims of policy holders promptly - Insurance companies told
The Commissioner of Insurance, Ms Lydia Lariba Bawa, has advised life insurance companies to pay claims of policy holders promptly to boost public confidence in and appreciation of the insurance industry.
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She urged insurance companies to treat their clients fairly by explaining the features and the terms of reference of policies at points of sale and not when policy holders made claims.
“Selling the product is talking, but paying claims is when we walk the talk,” she said when she addressed delegates at the fourth annual national life insurance conference in Accra yesterday.
“The terms and conditions of a policy must be conspicuously displayed in the policy document and clearly brought to the attention of the customer,” Ms Bawa said, adding that there must also be effective avenues for customers to seek redress if they had grievances and complaints.
Theme
The conference, which was on the theme: “Extending coverage of life insurance in Ghana— A collective responsibility”, attracted captains of the insurance industry, claims executives, underwriters, brokers and representatives of insurance agencies.
Coverage of insurance in Ghana, Ms Bawa said, was still low, even though gross premium income grew by 22 percent from GH¢680 million in 2015 to GH¢828 million in 2016.
She said non-life premium grew by 25 per cent from GH¢855 million to more than GH¢1 billion over the same period.
“There is the need to improve the capacity of the industry and provide appropriate regulatory interventions to improve access to insurance for the average Ghanaian,” she said.
To extend coverage of life insurance, she said, there was the need to develop products that met the needs of the various segments of the population, adding that such products must be designed to address specific occupational and lifestyle needs and improve the customer’s value.
Government support
The Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, in a speech read on his behalf, stated the government’s commitment to support the industry to grow and commended the NIC for the numerous interventions it had implemented to sanitise the insurance sector.
He said the new risk solvency framework which required that insurance and reinsurance companies maintained a minimum capital of GH¢15 million and GH¢40 million, respectively, had brought some level of financial stability to the companies and comfort to policy holders.
Kenyan experience
A guest speaker, who is the Group Chief Executive Officer of the CIC Insurance Group in Nairobi, Kenya, Mr Tom Gitogo, provoked the thoughts of the delegates with his presentation on the theme.
He urged life insurance operators to develop relevant products while they used effective channels of distribution.
Mr Gitogo, who used examples of the Kenyan experience and statistics on how the Kenyan Insurance industry was growing, advised life insurance operators in Ghana to put in place good corporate governance arrangements and not to abandon their clients after sales.
Education
The President of the Ghana Association of Bankers, Mr Alhassan Andani, who chaired the conference, said there was a direct correlation between the life insurance sector and formalising the economy.
He suggested that insurance companies should localise the concept of insurance and run massive education for the public.
“There are companies that insure their assets such as machinery and buildings but exempt their staff, yet they claim the human resource is the most important of their resources,” he said.
In a welcome address, the First Vice-President of the Ghana Insurers Association (GIA) and Chairman of the Life Insurance Council, Mr Edward Forkuo Kyei, reiterated the need to educate the public on the importance of securing and protecting their lives for a hopeful future.
For her part, the President of the GIA, Ms Aretha Doku, said it was the collective responsibility for all stakeholders to make life insurance a way of life in the country.
“We are quick to collect premiums but delay in the payment of claims. Our industry cannot afford to lag behind; we must enhance our service delivery to erase the negative perception. We must use the power of mobile technology to reach the untapped market and gain the trust and confidence of the public,” she said.
