The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed plans of positioning the Nigerian insurance industry among the 15 largest in the world come year 2020.
The apex bank said a lot of transformation was going on in the sector, as enshrined in its Financial System Stability 2020 (FSS 2020) aimed at revamping the sector, adding that it was working with the National Insurance Commission to achieve this feat.
The Head, Insurance Sector FSS 2020, CBN, Christian Muo in Sokoto recently, regretted that insurance contribution to GDP was still abysmally low adding that this calls for urgent transformation of the sector.
Consequently, he disclosed that the apex bank was working to ensure that the sector becomes the 15 largest insurance sector in the world in premium generation by 2020.
“With FSS 2020 insurance business will change”, he assured.”
Proffering solution on how to revamp the sector, Muo stated that there was need to first and foremost grant autonomy to the sector’s regulatory body, the NAICOM adding that the commission should be empowered such that it can implement and enforce compliance of various existing insurance laws.
Government, he said, should live up to its expectation by ensuring that its properties/buildings are all insured even as he advocated need for recapitalization of insurance firms.
Speaking on the success story of the FSS 2020, Muo assured that implementation of the project has guaranteed reduction in insurance gap to 40 per cent in 2016 from 94 per cent in 2007.
“Since 2008 till now, which is about eight years, we are now told that we have bridged that gap to about 40 percent.
That is encouraging because there has been a lot of reforms that are taking place and these are the effects of the FSS 2020.