Opportunity for micro-insurers as 18m Nigerians show interest

Some 18 million uninsured adult Nigerians have indicated interest in microinsurance products, according to the result from EFInA’s 2020 survey on Access to Financial Services in Nigeria released on Thursday.

This opens a huge opportunity for insurers in the country who are struggling to grow their customer base.

Currently, nine out of 10 Nigerians do not have any insurance subscription. Top among reasons for this are lack of tailor-made insurance products and low disposable income on account of the sluggish economic growth that has remained fragile since 2015.

The unwillingness by many Nigerians to take up insurance products has kept the insurance penetration rate in Africa’s largest economy at less than 1 percent in the last decade.
Going by EFInA’s data that put Nigeria’s adult population at 106 million (18 years and above), 103 million are outside the insurance scheme as only 2 percent or 2 million adults were insured as of 2020.