‘Develop innovative solutions to help address challenges hampering insurance services delivery’

Insurance Technology companies must develop innovative solutions to help address the challenges hampering insurance services delivery to expand insurance penetration and coverage, Acting Commissioner of Insurance, Mr Michael K. Andoh has stated.

According to him, the difficulty in acquiring Police and Doctor’s report to claim insurance, accessing some remote parts of the country, affected insurance services delivery.

Mr Andoh who stated this in an interview after the opening of a one-day forum on the new Insurance Act ad Innovations in the sector in Accra on Tuesday said the aforementioned challenges if addressed would help prompt claim payment and cost of insurance.

It was on the theme “The New Insurance Act: Unlocking the Insurance Industry Potential via Innovative Technology.”

It was organised by the National Insurance Commission (NIC) in partnership with Financial Sector Deepening Africa and Myfig.

He said the deployment of technology could reduce the cost of accessing insurance and expanding insurance penetration and coverage.

Mr Andoh said the technology could be a lever to reach a lot of the citizens with insurance.

According to him insurance through digital technology could be sold to people where insurance companies could not go.

He said the objective of the forum was to expose the insurance technology companies to the operations and solutions which would be be needed to boost the industry.

Mr Andoh said the NIC had introduced a sandbox to help insurance technology companies to text their ideas.

Under the sandbox, the NIC had offered two temporal license such as Insurers Innovative License for a period of two years to help insurance technology companies to test their insurance technology products.

The Head of Financial Market and Innovation Unit of the Ministry of Finance, Benjamin Torsah-Klu commended NIC for organising the forum, saying the Ministry of Finance saw the forum as cutting-edge, as it intends to create a platform for the industry to leverage technology and innovation across the insurance ecosystem for the transformation of the market.

“Government would continue to provide the enabling environment for digitalisation and innovation in order to reduce financial vulnerability. Income inequality and the huge risk protection gap,” he stated.

Mr Torsah-Klu said that the Ministry.of Finance saw the forum as a pragmatic step by the NIC to enhance insurance market development, through innovation and technology.

That, he said, would help accelerate growth and deepen insurance access and penetration, and most importantly, improve livelihood and financial stability of the country.

The Principal in charge of Innovation and Resilience of FSD Africa, Elias Omondi, said the objective of the FSD Africa was to deepen insurance penetration in in Africa particularly Ghana.

“Our role is how to create the large-scale change within the financial market in Africa and Ghana holds a special dispensation in insurance in Africa,” he stated.

BY KINGSLEY ASARE