Ghana to pass Payment Systems and Services Bill to broaden insurance penetration in the country
Insurance penetration to improve under Payment Systems and Services Bill says the Bank of Ghana
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Speaking at the Pan African Bancassurance Conference in Accra, Dr. Settor underscored the relevance of such a move.
According to him,the passage of the Bill into law will not just improve financial inclusion but also law also broaden the insurance penetration rate in the country.
“The overall objective is to deepen the payment and financial systems in the country. This Bill is to encourage partnership among banks and insurance companies”.
Currently, the latest data of Ghanaians on health insurance stands at 4.5 million and through bancassurance, people will be able to pay some premium and get access to health care, he added.
Dr.Settor also called for a further strengthened relationship among the insurance companies, banks and fintechs so as to deepen insurance penetration especially in the rural zones.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the conference and Managing Director of Mainstream Reinsurance Company Limited, Professor Adom Frimpong, is making a case for the Central Bank not to overly rely on the increase in minimum capital requirement for insurance industries.
In Ghana, while many of the life insurers have Bancassurance partnerships, only a few non-life insurers have such arrangements. Particularly, many life insurers now sell their educational, investment-linked and funeral policies through their partner banks, besides the other traditional channels.
The increasing focus on Bancassurance by insurers is in part, a result of the ever increasing cost of recruiting and maintaining direct agents and brokers which typically includes training/retraining, welfare, medicals, etc.
Similarly, the general public tends to have a stronger confidence in doing business with the banks compared with the insurance companies, a development that is fueled by the general negative perception about insurance.
This year's Pan African Bancassurance and Alternative Distribution Conference under the theme “Innovate or Die brought together participants from East, West and South Africa to create a continental bancassurance and Alternative Distribution.