Insurance, IT experts to speak at maiden e-Insurance conference

No fewer than 40 experts in Information Technology (IT) and Insurance Industries have shown their interest to speak at the maiden e-Insurance conference being organised by Pinet Informatics.

The speakers at the conference which is billed to hold on March 23 would be discussing issues affecting insurance growth in Nigeria, how to re-build customers’ confidence in insurance business and how technology could act as a catalyst in boosting insurance business in the 21st century, where technology innovation is the key driver.

Some of the technology companies which includes MainOne, MTN, Airtel, Vodacom Business, VDT Communications, Google,  among others have indicated interest to share their wealth of experience at the eInsurance conference.

Apart from technology companies, major insurance companies operating in Nigeria, according to the organisers, have also indicated interest to speak at the conference, while Mr Eddie Efekoha, chairman of Nigeria Insurance Association (NIA), shall be chairing a panel discussion in which Managing Directors of some leading insurance companies are panelists.

Engineer Lanre Ajayi, chief executive officer of Pinet Informatics, organiser of the conference, confirmed the participation and attendance of various companies from the IT and Insurance sectors, stressing that new technologies that would best drive Insurance development in the country would be on display during the one day conference.

Ajayi who is the former President of Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), said after the conference, there would be one week training workshop on e-Insurance for staff of insurance companies.

The ICT and Insurance experts will gather at the Lagos Sheraton Hotel for the e-Insurance Conference with the theme: “Driving Insurance Penetration with Information and Communication Technologies.” The conference is expected to assemble corporate organisations, ICT experts, insurance experts, academia, consumers of insurance products and regulators of both ICT and Insurance industries, to discuss how to use technology to deepen insurance penetration in Nigeria.

According to Ajayi, the  Insurance  industry  is  a  vital  part  of  the  Nigerian  economy  but  the  industry  is  not  living  up  to  its full  potential saying, “there  are  less  than 1.5 million insurance policyholders in Nigeria out of a population of 170 million,  which translates to 0.9 per cent insurance penetration.” When compared to  23 percent bank accounts penetration, 105 percent of telephone penetration and 55 percent of Internet penetration,  then, there is a  lot of room for improvement in the insurance industry and this could be achieved by deploying the right technology, Ajayi said.

“The Nigeria insurance industry can be turned around if the industry transit to a technology driven one, the same way the banking industry got transformed through the infusion of information and communication technology in its service delivery processes,” he said.