Mokwunye says media critical to insurance education, prescribes coordinated efforts

DigitalSENSE Business News:
The Group Managing Director and chief executive officer (GMD/CEO), Royal Exchange Plc, Mr. Chike Mokwunye has described media as critical to boosting the insurance education in the country, prescribing a coordinated insurance education across all organs of awareness to increase people’s interest insurance and its adoption.

Speaking as a guest speaker at the 5^th anniversary lecture and awards presentation organised by Business Journal at Sheraton Hotels Ikeja-Lagos, Mokwunye said that a coordinated approach to insurance education would provide a framework for the participation of the media, insurers and the regulator.

This, he told DigitalSENSE Business News, would produce a more desired result than the current state of affairs, where everyone is on their own rather being on the same lane.

Dwelling on “The Media as Critical Partners in closing insurance awareness gap in Nigeria” Mokwunye said the role of the media cannot be over-emphasised, because it would help to improve insurance literacy through insurance education and advocacy.

“We will understand insurance literacy to mean the capacity to identify, understand, and correctly assess the risk one is exposed to: household, business units, government and think critically of risk management mechanism,” he asserted.

Pointing out that currently, all 36 states of the federation run their own radio stations, most of them operating TV services as well.

“There are 39 radio and 37 television stations owned by the different governments across the country and about 17 radio and 10 television stations are privately owned,” he said, while the print media has a long history of private participation, dating back to the colonial period.

The online and mobile media, he highlighted, have in recent years had tremendous influence on businesses, growing steadily in relevance in the last decade.

From the above, therefore, he emphasized that the mass media should provide effective channel for communicating with the people.

“The target market would determine the media mix,” he advised.

From the above prescription, Mokwunye said that it is safe to conclude that the media has a critical role to play in closing insurance awareness gap in Nigeria by improving insurance literacy through insurance education and advocacy. It should be considered a national call to duty!

Speaking earlier, the chairman of OpenMedia, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, who presided over the function, commended the  organisers and lecturers for the insight they brought to bear on the topics and joined participants in wishing Business Journal a fruitful years ahead.

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