Develop innovative products to enhance insurance penetration – Ag Commissioner of Insurance
The Acting Commissioner of Insurance, Michael Kofi Andoh, has urged insurance practitioners to work to increase insurance penetration in the country.
He said insurance penetration (contribution of the insurance to Gross Domestic Product) was below two per cent, and that there was the need for players in the industry to help address that.
Mr Andoh was speaking at the 16th graduation ceremony of the Ghana Insurance College (GIC).
In all, 257 students graduated with Certificate, Diploma and Advanced Diploma in Insurance, and deserving students were awarded with plaques and souvenirs.
Mr Andoh entreated insurance companies to develop innovative insurance products, particularly in the area of agriculture, to increase insurance uptake.
Mr Andoh lauded the graduands for their hard work which had brought them honour, saying the monies they had made in their training was an investment and not an expenditure.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, who was the guest speaker, urged insurance practitioners and professionals to work hard to redeem the image of the insurance industry to help increase uptake.
She said the perception among a section of the public that insurance companies were quick to collect premiums but slow to pay claims could dent the image of the insurance industry, and urged the graduands to help erase such public perceptions.
The Vice-Chancellor stressed the need for insurance practitioners to exhibit professionalism to build confidence in the industry, saying, “Do not compromise on the ethics and values of the profession”.
In furtherance, she pledged that the University of Ghana was ready to partner the GIC Insurance College to train more insurance professionals and practitioners, and commended the GIC for the role it had played in training professionals over the years to fill the insurance and allied industry.
The Director of the GIC, Mr Richard Okyere, said the GIC was established in 2006 to train professionals for the insurance and allied industries, and said the GIC had trained hundreds of professionals for the insurance and allied industries.
Mr Okyere said the GIC was collaborating with a lot of institutions, both in and outside Ghana, to train insurance professionals.
