Coronation Insurance is working with Access Bank to develop Business Protection Bundles for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
The protection bundles provide insurance cover for basic fire, flood and limited liability cover. Similarly, its limited employee life insurance provides three years’ annual income to enable Nigerian SMEs to affordably cover the basics of successfully operating their businesses.
Speaking at a webinar jointly organised by Coronation Insurance Plc and Coronation Life Assurance Ltd with the theme: ‘Importance of Insurance for SMEs: Insurance Requirement for a Growing Business,’ executive director, Technical, Coronation Life Assurance Ltd, Adebowale Adesona, noted that his insurer has rolled out several insurance products targeted at SMEs segment, noting that Coronation Insurance paid some SMEs who insured their businesses during EndSARS protest that affected their businesses.
While urging entrepreneurs to see insurance as the only viable risk management tools, he urged them to patronise his insurance firm for the best and outstanding insurance services.
Similarly, the head of emerging business, Africa Access Bank Plc, Ayo Olojede, had said, there is a cordial relationship between his bank and Coronation Insurance to ensure that customers of the bank have access to array of insurance products to mitigate risks of lives and properties.
Country manager, Wordplay, Louis Alozi, said Nigeria need to leverage on the experience of other markets that had developed successful SME insurance ecosystems where government coordinated policy and legislation in tandem with the insurance industry and large and small businesses.
While some of this involved compulsory insurance, he said, costs were minimal as it was so widespread, adding that, “embedded insurance, included in the price of products purchased, for example, provided a painless method to spread the use of insurance and address trust deficits.”
Vice president, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Gbenga Ismail, stated that Nigeria had lost 2 million SMEs to the COVID-19 pandemic, he added that, most new SMEs struggled to achieve scale quickly enough to realise the opportunities for which they were created.
Despite 90 per cent of SMEs currently not paying tax, he said, SMEs represented a huge potential to drive economic inclusion, broaden prosperity and power the future growth of the Nigerian economy.
To this end, Ismail argued that it was critical to provide SMEs with the support to ensure survival in the first critical years, noting that. insurance represented a key financial cushion to manage shocks and build financial resilience in the first years of SME growth.
“With only 0.5 per cent of Nigerian SMEs insured, compare with 54 per cent globally, the country should focus squarely on developing an insurance environment more accommodating of and appealing to SMEs,” he advised.
Earlier, managing director at Coronation Insurance Plc, Olamide Olajolo had stated that the webinars is part of the company’s thought leadership initiatives which is designed to provide relevant insights for both corporate and individual clients across various sectors of the economy.
Olajolo noted that the past three years had been marked by uncertainties and the uncertainties of the business environment has underlined the importance of insurance protection for business risks at the adequate level to help businesses to grow.
