NAICOM to introduce micro Takaful insurance in Kano  

The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) is set to introduce micro takaful insurance in Kano as a way of providing an accepted and accessible insurance system for the largely Muslim populace in Kano state.

The is was announced by the head of the microinsurance unit of NAICOM, Aisha Bashir, in Kano on Wednesday at a sensitization workshop for micro, small and medium enterprises on the need for microinsurance.

“Our presence and activity today in Kano has created the demand for Takaful companies of which there are now only four in Kano. We are now going to design more products that are tailored to the needs of these people who are now needy of Takaful Insurance. “

We are not just creating demand, we are also going to strengthen the supply side as well. We will bring products for them to buy and enlightenment them the more” the insurance expert stated. At the event which the insurance commission partnered with Star Sapphire Foundation, Aisha Bashir also revealed the expectations at the end if the workshop hoping for wider awareness on micro takaful as well as the conventional insurance among members of the public. “

At the end of the workshop, we hope to achieve widespread insurance penetration into the largely conservative populace. Already there is awareness now and more people will soon join the system as more and more get aware of the product. We will ensure that as NAICOM we deliver value” she said. She also observed that the interest of the people in Kano is micro takaful and that NAICOM will make it available for them.

“The interest of the public here is micro takaful and we will come up with the micro takaful regulations, that is what they want. What we do at NAICOM is to segment our customers. They have heard of the microinsurance but they don’t want the conventional type, they want micro takaful and as a fall out of this event we are quickly going to role out the micro takaful for them” she told newsmen.

In his comment, a Board Manager of the Star Sapphire Foundation, Alhassan Haruna, he explained that Kano is the most populated state in the country with about 60 percent of the populace into businesses, they need to be provided with the insurance product as financial security, sighting various fire outbreaks in markets in the past that had forced a lot of people out of business. “Kano is the most populated state in the North, with about 60 percent of which is made up of businesspeople of micro, small, medium and large scales, that is why we are beginning from Kano.

“A lot of youth groups and organizations have been invited so that they come and get enlightened about insurance. Our people are left behind in insurance because of our religious concepts of believing that all protection can only come from God Almighty. “But now the scholars have researched and founded ways that insurance could be practised in accordance with the religious rules, the takaful insurance policy. “So insurance companies were invited as well as NAICOM which is a partner in the workshop to enlighten the people on the need for insurance” he stated.

Explaining what is meant by the Takaful insurance, he said “The takaful insurance is an agreement in which members of a group or association contribute funds based on an agreement such that if anything happens to any of their members he gets resuscitated. “There are people who engage in such monthly contributions with which they support their members whenever he is faced with calamity or disaster. It is good for people here in Kano to begin to initiate such things based on the takaful we are introducing to them” he explained.

Source: Vanguard

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