Less than 1.5 million people (0.9%) out of the over 180 million citizens in Nigeria have insurance policy, according to the Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu (photo).

Speaking at an e-Insurance conference themed: “Driving Insurance Penetration with ICT” in Lagos last week, Shittu revealed that the gross income of the insurance sector stood at N500 billion ($1.6 billion) in 2016. This signifies that the sector contributes below 1% to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country.

He lamented that the sector, which has been a major facilitator of business growth in developed countries by providing critical support to the financial market, records a slow growth in Nigeria despite the current size of its economy and population. Shittu further noted that though Nigeria records penetration rates of 105%, 55% and 23% for mobile, internet and bank accounts respectively, only a small percentage of the population has subscribed to any form of insurance packages.

The Director-General/CEO of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Isa Ali Ibrahim, however stated that ICTs can be integrated into the insurance process through big data analytics, a process which involves analyzing huge amounts of data in order to identify patterns, trends and other business information that can help decision makers in the decision-taking process.

Anita Fatunji