Insurance companies that want to remain relevant in the nearest future must conciously create digital channels that are customer friendly, customer-centric and always make the customer happy.

Speaking on the topic “Insurance For The Future In 2021” at the virtual training for insurance journalists organised by Leadway Assurance Company Limited, Mr. Akinyemi Alebiosu, Principal Investment and Strategy,  Leadway Assurance Limited, said that underwriting in the future is going to be driven by data.

According to Alebiosu, if companies have proper data, they can predict incidents of loss and properly price it.

He said: “Data is the new oil and underwriting in the future is going to be driven by data and analytics. We are getting to a point where we will be using historical records, using robotics, artificial intelligence in making decisions of pricing, type and extent of risks we take.

“Insurance companies of the future will seek to collect large pools of data, analyse it, try to make meaning of it, prepare or create predictive models, at the end of the day make decisions that will make the product better. For example, in analysing the data, I want to know the pain point of our customers, what is their biggest concern, how am I able to create products that meet these needs at the lowest cost because if I have a proper data I can predict incidents of loss and properly price it and also know what their price point is. So at the end of the day if we use data and analytics correctly in our underwriting process, the customer will be happy, the underwriter will be happy and all the stakeholders will benefit from the insurance ecosystem.”

Alebiosu stated that digital channels will soon displace insurance agents despite their current dominance of the market.

“Insurance is largely driven by agents and brokers, it is only a matter of time that the digital platforms will outnumber insurance agents in the distribution of insurance. So for insurance companies of tomorrow, for insurance products, we need to conciously gravitate from directly selling to customers to creating digital channels that are customer friendly and customer centric.

“For example, if I want to buy insurance, I don’t need to call somebody, I just go to the website, I can find what I need and make a purchase. We need to be able to meet our customers over the social media, because they want to send us messages and get instant answer. Social media is also an avenue for customer education. If we compare the number of Nigerians on social media and the number of Nigerians that have insurance, you will see that we have a very long way to go.”

He said that Leadway is a solution based company, adding “We want to see your problems, your risks and we want to solve them.”

Executive Director, General Business, Leadway Assurance Limited, Ms. Adetola Adegbayi,  implored Nigerians to embrace insurance, stressing that insurance remains a key source of raising fund to carter for risks.

She noted that Leadway Assurance over the years has being providing happiness to the insuring public through prompt payment of claims.