THE insurance industry in the country eyes increasing its annual revenue by over 50 per cent from next year in a bid to contribute more to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Speaking at the 18th Annual Insurance
Day in Dar es Salaam yesterday, the Commissioner of Insurance, Mr Israel
Kamuzora, said they plan to increase the annual income from the current
650 billion/- to 1 trillion/- in the coming year.
“The industry has currently invested a
capital of 450bn/- in the existing year’s economy thus acted as a
catalyst for the country’s economic growth,” said Mr Kamuzora. He
declared that much has to be done in imparting more knowledge on the
importance of insurance covers to the public, particularly the informal
sector.
“Today, we are going to go about and see
the best ways possible and consider how we are going to create more
awareness to facilitate enrollment on various insurance covers,” he
said.
The Kagera earthquake has truly
demonstrated the need for people to enroll themselves into various
insurance covers. By now, the insurance companies would have compensated
the beneficiaries.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Secretary in the
Ministry of State, President’s Office, Public Service Management and
Good Governance, Ms Susan Mlawi, pointed out that society needs to gain a
basic understanding of insurance and knowledge as to how people can
manage risks through insurance.
“Insurance education thus needs to focus
on increasing the awareness levels and the reach of insurance to every
Tanzanian but particularly to the less privileged in our society,” said
Ms Mlawi.
The majority of insurance products in
our country are presently focused on traditional markets, serving the
needs of large corporate and high-income individuals, with limited
product development at the lower income end of the population.
Ms Mlawi challenged the insurance
industry to develop cross-competency curriculum including technical,
professional and soft skills training. “This will enable practitioners
and risk managers to access leading edge industry knowledge and
techniques needed for creation of efficiency in the delivery of
insurance services in Tanzania,” she noted.
On her part, the Head of Operation at
the African Management Service Company (AMSCO), Ms Judith Lorika, was of
the view that to build growth of the sector, more capacity building and
local skills development should commence.
“More programmes that go in line with
the changing world should be introduced for the existing ones were
outdated,” said Ms Lorika.
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