Babington-Ashaye Urges Insurers to Leverage Market Opportunities for Growth

A former President of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) and Managing Director, Risk Analyst Insurance Brokers, Funmi Babington -Ashaye, has charged insurance operators to leverage on opportunities in emerging markets to improve their fortunes and enhance the industry’s growth.

Babington-Ashaye, made the call while speaking on “Emerging Markets and Opportunities in the Insurance Industry,” at the 2021 Mid-year Workshop organised by the Lagos Area Committee of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB).

Ashaye, who delivered her presentation virtually defined emerging market as a market that has some characteristics of a developed market, but does not fully meet its standards.

According to her, an emerging market economy is considered to be progressing towards becoming a developed market.

She said emerging markets comprise of developing nations which are becoming more engaged with markets as they grow; transiting from low per capita income, but with insignificant industrial activities towards a modern and industrial economy.

According to her, in such markets, insurers capitalise on increased wealth in the middle class, a low rate of penetration of insurance products and services, and even government support to introduce insurance products to people in rural areas.

She expressed optimism that the current growth momentum is expected to continue as more distribution channels are being explored with increased use of information technology tools for back-end operations as well as for sales services to reach out to the customers.

Ashaye, called on the underwriters and brokers to take advantage of emerging markets opportunities by focusing on key drivers such as financial services, customer segmentation, consumer needs, technology, business models, and transformational changes.