GIA, Graphic sensitise public to importance of insurance
The Ghana Insurance Association (GIA), in partnership with Graphic Business, has launched this year’s Insurance Awareness Month to help sensitise the public to the need for insurance.
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On the theme: “Making Insurance the Ghanaian way of life”, the campaign is targeted at increasing the public’s understanding of insurance concepts, educating them on how insurance could mitigate the potential risks faced in our personal and professional lives and encouraging the need for financial planning.
The month-long campaign would include activities such as consumer outreach programmes, fun games, donations and a GIA-Graphic Insurance Fair at Accra Mall on July 20 this year, with a special pull-out supplement on the insurance industry aimed at creating awareness of insurance among the citizenry.
Launch
Addressing participants in the launch in Accra, the President of GIA, Seth Kobla Aklasi, stated that the programme was a demonstration of the association’s commitment to the cause of insurance awareness creation as a pivot for increasing the uptake and extension of insurance penetration in the country.
He said the country was emerging from the twin macro-economic challenges of COVID-19 and Ghana’s Domestic debt exchange which had negatively impacted consumer confidence and perception regarding financial services of which insurance was no exception.
However, Mr Aklasi stated that the campaign was a platform to educate potential customers who might not know the benefits of insurance as well as the existing policyholders who were in doubt regarding the benefits of their policies about the numerous benefits and risk mitigating effect insurance gave once such products were purchased.
He further encouraged stakeholders involved in the campaign to put in much effort to ensure that many lives were positively impacted through insurance.
Change product messages
The Past President of the GIA, Ivan Avereyireh, stated that the theme was timely and, thus, entailed a conscious and well-planned effort to change the mindset and attitudes of Ghanaians to accept insurance as a way of life.
He explained that selling the idea of insurance to insurers was a difficult task, as insurance products were intangible and were based on promises which were mostly hard to believe or bought by their potential clients.
Thus, he asked insurance companies to desist from selling their products to consumers but rather rephrase their messages to make the people understand they are ready to solve their problems.
Mr Avereyireh said the ineffective communication between insurance companies and clients was a contributing factor to the growing myths and negative news spread about insurance companies.
“Let them know that insurance companies in the country are reliable and that about GH¢4 million of claims are paid daily to clients”.
He further stated that in as much as prompt payment of claims was important to overcome the negative perception of insurance companies, there was a need to work on quality service to fully win over the trust of Ghanaians.
The Director of Marketing at Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), Franklin Sowa, commended the association for the initiative and stated that insurance played a critical role in the life of every citizen.
GIA-Graphic
He said the collaboration was significant as GCGL played an important role in bringing together their target audience onto a common platform.
Thus, the insurance fair would give companies the opportunity to pitch their products to their prospective clients and neutralise the varied perceptions people had about insurance.
Mr Sowa further encouraged the companies involved to make the best out of the opportunity to engage and actively educate people on available insurance products.