Benjamin Avickosn, South East Sector Manager of GLICO Life Insurance, has observed that in spite of the few challenges insurance companies are saddled with in Ghana, the sector has over the years shown positive signs of growth.

According to him, almost all the insurance companies are working at changing the perception people have of the insurance companies in order to further boost the growth of the sector.

Speaking on the Business Talk programme on Class 91.3FM on Wednesday, September 27 hosted by Michael Katahena, Mr Avickson said: “The good news is that over the years, the insurance industry has been growing and has shown positive signs of getting to where it has to get to.

“Currently if you look in Africa or if you consider the African continent, I think South Africa is having a growth rate of insurance penetration of about 13 per cent and Nigeria is in between 4 and 5 per cent. So we are working hard to ensuring that Ghana’s position changes.”

Explaining why most Ghanaians are not interested in insurance, he said: “Maybe the level of education or the literacy rate is quite low. If you compare what persists here and other places, you will realise that we have a low literacy rate.

“Quite apart from that, if you take insurance as a field, it falls under the financial services and generally, even for those of us who are well lectured, we find an understanding of financial services difficult. So there is a whole complex of issues, but the good news is that we are working hard at it as an industry to ensure that we increase penetration and to ensure that many more people have access to our products and services and to ensure that people benefit from the insurance as a whole.”