Twelve insurance innovation companies in the country have been supported to raise a grant of $7.2 million to develop products to drive insurance penetration and coverage.
Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSDAfrica), a development organisationfunded by UKaid and the National Insurance Commission ((NIC), helped the companies to raise the money under the Innolab Insuretech Programme.
Some of the companies were LBH, Ibiza, Moveon, Fictech, Mobishua, and Binew.
The InnolabInsuretechprogramme,which was started by the NIC in 2022 in partnership with FSDAfrica and would end in 2025 under the auspices of GIZ, would support insurance companies to develop innovative insurance products to help expand insurance coverage in the country.
This was revealed during a press briefing on the Innolab Insuretech programme in Accra on Friday.
The Acting Commissioner of Insurance, Michael K. Andoh, said the Innolab Insuretech programme was initiated to attract innovators into the insurance space to promote inclusive insurance (insurance products for the poor, vulnerable and marginalised).
He said the programme was to address the challenges facing the insurance industry, such as high cost and low coverage and penetration.
Mr Andoh explained that the Innolab was a laboratory to test and nurture new insurance ideas, products and services before they were introduced into the insurance market.
The Innolab programme, he said, was also to help to expose insurance technology companies to the Mobile Insurance Regulation.
That, he said, followed numerous requests by insurance technology companies to the NIC to allow them to develop digital products to enhance insurance coverage in the country.
In line with that, MrAndoh said, the Insurance Act was reviewed to introduce insurance Technical Service Providers to allow companies which were into developing mobile and digital insurance products to enter the insurance space.
Mr Andoh said technology was one of the best ways to reach lot of consumers with insurance considering the increasing adoption of technology by the youth.
Elias Omondi, Principal Innovation for Resilience of FSDAfrica said innovation was critical to reduce the cost of insurance and come out with new products to reach the underserved and the poor and vulnerable.
That was the reason his outfit was partnering with the NIC to support insurance innovators and the Ghanaian insurance market to build resilience, drive down the cost of insurance and develop inclusive insurance products for consumers.
Hence, there was the need to introduce digital innovative products to reach a lot of consumers with insurance.
Mr Omondi said his outfit was working to attract a lot of funding from donors and development partners to support the insurance industry in Ghana.
He said so far about $1.2 million had been invested in the Innolab Insuretech programme, saying the amount was invested in technical support to the NIC, and financial support to the twelve Insurance innovation companies benefitting from the Innolab Insuretech programme.