Leadway Insurance Resolves to Drive Insurance Growth

Underwriting firm, Leadway Assurance
Limited, has expressed its determination to
promote insurance awareness by
increasing industry visibility in national
growth.

The Head, Compliance and Enterprise Risk
Management, Temilolu Aduloju, said this
yesterday during a courtesy visit to the
Rutam House of The Guardian in Lagos.

Aduloju explained that the move is borne
out of the conviction that greater success
can be achieved for the insurance industry,
if they consolidated on the gains made in
the last few years, whilst leveraging on the
national economy.

According to him, Leadway is focused on
promoting the ideals of the industry and
landmark successes in enthroning unity in
the sector.
The firm paid claims of N26 billion in 2017
to policyholders; this has been the strength
of the company because we are keeping to
the promised made to our customers.
“The current reality of our operating
environment appears dire and continues to
test us on all fronts.
“However, we continue to find ways to
deepen penetration of insurance by
educating the public and encouraging them
to ‘Think Leadway’ once they have decided
to buy insurance.”

He charged the insurance industry to play
an active role in a nation’s economy, being
a tool for the transfer of risks from
businesses and individuals to strong and
reliable risk management institutions. It
should also help to create wealth and
employment opportunities through its
various investment vehicles.

According to him, the poor performance in
the industry can be traced to cultural and
religious beliefs, which make people turn
blind eyes to risks around them.

This is in
addition to the issues of perception and
understanding of the concept of insurance,
as well as the limited access to prospective
customers, which impacts very negatively
on market penetration.

For example, only an approximate 1.5 per
cent of Nigerians within the insurable class
are covered by insurance today, meaning
that Nigerians and their businesses are
largely unprotected from the myriad of risks
they face daily.

The low coverage and penetration level
further indicates the low level of acceptance
among the people, which is a consequence
of the cultural perception of insurance in
the country, consumers’ distrust of the
insurance system and low insurance
literacy.

Having taken cognisance of these issues, he
said Leadway Assurance has elected to
evolve creative solutions to bridge this
financial protection gap. After almost five
decades in the insurance business sector,
the company recently launched a first-of-its-
kind mobile insurance office to take
insurance closer to the neighbourhoods.

The Head, Corporate Communication/
Services of the firm, Olubunmi Adeleye, who
also explained that “Notwithstanding a
population of over 180 million people about
a third of which are within the insurable
class, Nigeria is said to have about five
million registered policyholders.

This lack of
density shows how largely untapped the
Nigerian market is and the huge
opportunities available to increase
insurance uptake and the number of
policyholders nationwide.”
Adeleye said the mobile office is equipped
with state of the art communication
technology that allows customers to be
serviced real-time, end-to-end, wherever
they may be. It is also environmentally
friendly as it draws its power from solar
while within remote areas.

Starting with Lagos State, she said the
company will be activating market
roadshows across several local councils.