NAICOM projects capturing over 10 million Nigerians into insurance scheme
By Asishana John
The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), has rolled out various strategic plans aimed at bringing into insurance net, over 10million informal sector operators.
These include Nano, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises’ owners across all sectors of the economic.
NAICOM has taken steps to sensitise operators of this group of business enterprise owners across the country on the need to embrace insurance as a way of protecting their businesses in event of misfortune.
Such strategic step was the sensitisation of over three hundred small business owners in Lagos last week. Daily Independent learned that the exercise would be replicated across the 36 states while Kano, Kaduna and Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), have already played host to the scheme.
Speaking on NAICOM zeal in bringing into insurance inclusion, the largest sector in the economy, Mr Sunday Thomas, Commissioner for Insurance at the National Insurance Commission assured the NMSMEs sector that insurance will provide the shock absorber to withstand any unforeseen calamities when they do occur during the course of operation.
According to him, NAICOM is committed to our mandate of providing diligent oversight to the insurance sector towards ensuring prompt settlement of genuine claims when insured events occurs.
“I dare say that the MSMEs sector is too important to be neglected as it is key to economic development of the nation and this must be guided and protected against failure.”
He said, “adding that the importance of MSMEs to national development cannot be overstated. It is indeed the fulcrum of a nation’s growth and development.
“MSMEs form the superstructure to stimulate mass enterprise growth and serve as a source of livelihood for the base of the pyramid population across all economies is it underdeveloped, emerging or frontier markets.
“In Nigeria, all development interventions of the current administration have had components focused on enabling these MSMEs sprout and flourish but unfortunately, with little or no insurance content to deal with associated risks and ensure sustainability and guarding them against failure.”
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, “Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria have contributed about 48per cent – on average – to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the last five years from a total of about 17.4 million enterprises (NBS 2019). They account for about 50per cent of industrial jobs and nearly 90per cent of activities in the manufacturing sector.”
