Ghana’s Acting Commissioner of Insurance, Mr. Michael Kofi Andoh has said that 44.6% of working people in Ghana have one form of insurance or the other, up from an initial 29% in 2015.
He reiterated this during the launch of the 19th International Conference on Inclusive Insurance (ICII) to be hosted by Ghana in October. The Conference provides a platform where experts come out with measures and strategies, to help close the insurance gap for the low-income earners and workers in the informal sector.
The conference slated for October 23-27, is being organised by the National Insurance Commission (NIC) in collaboration with the Ghana Insurers Association (GIA), and the Insurance Brokers Association of Ghana (IBAG). The conference is being supported by the Micro Insurance Network and the Munich Re Foundation with partners such as the GIZ and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The Acting Commissioner said the conference would discuss topics such as how to help the vulnerable to protect themselves against climate change, gender sensitive insurance, digital solutions for inclusive insurance and the participants would have opportunity to meet the leading authorities on Inclusive Insurance and interact with them.
Over 500 delegates across the world are expected to attend on a platform to share ideas and knowledge on sustainable inclusive insurance.
Inclusive Insurance means the development of insurance products to suit the needs of the low-income earners, the vulnerable and informal sector workers.
Speaking at the launch in Accra, Ghana’s Acting Commissioner of Insurance, Mr. Michael Kofi Andoh, said the conference would be attended by stakeholders in the insurance industry to deliberate on how technology can be deployed to promote inclusive insurance.
He said efforts to close the insurance gap had been complicated by developments such as COVID-19, and climate change, indicating that those events had created negative impact on the poor and low-income earners.
“There is therefore now, more than ever before, the urgent need for concerted efforts by all stakeholders to find sustainable safety nets that enable the vulnerable and the bottom of the pyramid to break out of poverty and live decent safe lives,”
He said Ghana was chosen for the conference because the country had been at the forefront of the ICII since 2009, and in 2011 published the country’s Micro Insurance Regulation and Mobile Insurance Regulations in 2017.
Mr. Andoh appealed to corporate bodies, particularly insurance companies to support the conference to make it a success.
The Resident Country Representative of the UNDP, Dr. Angela Lusigi, said inclusive insurance could serve as a catalyst for social and economic development, while promoting financial inclusion and safeguarding the well-being of vulnerable populations.
She said while disaster risks were on the increase, there was huge protection gap in developing countries, where less than five per cent in high-income countries.
“We have every confidence that his strategic conference will enable experts across the globe to come up with a whole society approach and foster partnerships and resources required to reduce vulnerabilities through the use of inclusive insurance mechanisms”. Dr. Lusigi, adding that the conference would help Ghana to learn from the successes and failures of inclusive insurance market space from other countries.
Representatives of the GIA, IBAG, and the Munich Re Foundation made stakeholder remarks calling on corporate Ghana and insurance entities to sponsor activities lined up for the Conference in October 2023.
The ICII is a global conference that seeks to provide a common platform for a very wide group of stakeholders such as insurers, researchers, academia, policymakers, regulators, development partners, technology firms etc. The conferences are organized for the sharing of ideas and knowledge on sustainable inclusive insurance. The annual conference seeks to find effective ways to close the insurance gap for the uninsured sustainable for providers and beneficial to users.
The hosting of the conference rotates between Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbeans. The inaugural edition was held in 2005. Ghana is the 5th African country to host it after South Africa, Zambia among others hosted it.
The 19th conference to be held in Ghana is expected to include participants from CIMA and FANAF as partners for a good representation of the Francophone countries.