|
NHIS initiative has created vast market opportunities for
local insurers – Kufuor
Accra, April 02, Ghanadot/GNA – President
John Agyekum Kufuor on Tuesday called on Insurance Companies
to take advantage of the vast market created through the
National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to provide cover for
Ghanaians who are yet to join the scheme.
He said it was the wish of the Government that as many
insurance companies as possible would avail themselves of
appropriate licenses to operate health insurance businesses.
President Kufuor was inaugurating a multi-million six-storey
ultra-modern Head Office building of GLICO Life, a giant in
the insurance industry, at Adabraka in Accra.
The company, which has been operating in the country for
about 20 years, employs more than 500 Ghanaians.
President Kufuor noted that insurance in many ways was still
largely a virgin industry in the country with a huge
undeveloped market.
Until the advent of the NHIS, insurance, he observed was
alien to the larger section of the population.
Some members of the society in the past had shied away from
life insurance policies as a result of the then prevailing
high level inflation that rendered policies valueless upon
maturation.
He said, with the era of uncontrollable inflation gone and
the national economy enjoying stability, the challenge now
was for the companies to win back public confidence through
education and to target the population with affordable and
easily accessible life insurance policies.
President Kufuor praised GLICO for the different subsidiary
companies it had set up to engage in life, non-life and
health insurance operation and said the Government was
appreciative of the support and contribution of the
insurance industry to national development.
He said as the national economy grew and investments
increased, especially in the face of the recent oil
discovery, demand for high quality insurance products was
bound to increase.
It was in response to this that the Government has
promulgated a New Insurance Law to improve operational
efficiency and create opportunities to stimulate further
growth of the industry.
The law, he said was aimed, among other things, at ensuring
adequate capitalization of the companies, improve corporate
governance and to adequately protect policy holders.
President Kufuor said deregulation of composite insurance
companies by the law implied that insurance companies that
were currently composite should separate their life and
non-life businesses.
The Deputy Finance Minister, Professor George Gyan-Baffour,
asked the companies to design more life products to make
this aspect of insurance more attractive to Ghanaians.
They should also make good use of the Insurance Training
Centre to get their staff to be properly trained for
enhanced service delivery.
Mr. Kwame Achampong-Kusi, the Chief Executive Officer of
GLICO, said their vision was to reach out to every Ghanaian
household with life insurance.
GNA
|
