One of Ghana’s leading insurance firms, Hollard Insurance, says since the introduction of the MID in January this year, it has seen an increase in its Motor Insurance portfolio. The MID was introduced to eliminate the phenomenon of fake Motor Insurance.
Statistics from the NIC has shown that out of 2.3 million vehicles registered in 2018; only one million were issued with genuine motor insurance stickers.
Speaking to Citi Business News after his company won several awards at the recently held 2020 edition of the prestigious Ghana Insurance Awards, Managing Director of Hollard Insurance, Daniel Boi Addo, said the MID is a timely game-changer.
“This year, the growth in the motor insurance portfolio has been phenomenal. Unfortunately the regulator hasn’t released the industry numbers yet; so I can only speak for Hollard and the motor insurance database is growing at about 30%. We haven’t seen this kind of growth in the company or in the industry before. In just 8 months of the database, we are beginning to see strong recovery in the automobile business, and we are not out of the woods yet. So I think the potential is there for all to see. I think the MID has been very impactful. It’s been very helpful and it came at the opportune time,” he said.
He is thus urging all insurance companies to rally behind the regulator on steps being taken to boost insurance coverage and penetration.
“When you consider all the new interventions we are discussing which will come with the new bill, then you would appreciate where the regulator is coming from. They expect to create new market for the insurance companies and I for one will be extremely disappointed if as an industry we don’t rally behind the regulator to achieve these numbers,” he said.
Despite the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sector, Mr. Addo assured the company’s clients that measures have been put in place to solidify their position in the industry.
“We won three significant awards. What this means is that new people are buying Hollard company products. New people who were insuring with other companies are now coming to Hollard. That is how come we are growing more than any insurance company so we are excited, and we are doing that by making insurance accessible to everybody,” he said.
Motor Insurance Database
The issuance of fake insurance stickers or the existence of uninsured motor vehicles has been a major worry for the National Insurance Commission, NIC.
As part of efforts to tackle this, in January this year, the NIC stopped the issuance of old motor insurance stickers.
This was replaced with an electronic motor insurance sticker.
Among other things, the new sticker affords the police and the general public an opportunity to verify the authenticity of an insurance sticker.
The checks can be done through the use of a mobile phone by simply dialing a code, receipt of acknowledgement of transaction via a text message or by scanning a QR code on the insurance sticker by the Police MTTD.
