By Chidimma Oparaochaekwe
Poor public awareness, limited insurance literacy and inadequate media coverage are undermining public confidence in Nigeria’s insurance industry, experts have warned.
They urged journalists to move beyond reporting disasters as isolated events and begin examining the insurance implications of road crashes, building collapses, fires and other risks that affect lives, property and livelihoods.
The experts spoke at a two-day media training programme, titled “The Universe of Insurance and Journalism: Risk Everywhere, in Everything,” where they challenged the media to make insurance a more prominent part of everyday reporting.
Speaking on “Bridging the Information Gaps and Financial Adversities,” a lecturer and former Head of the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos, Prof. Adepoju Tejumaiye, said the media had a critical role in shaping public understanding of insurance and risk.
Tejumaiye said journalists should serve as “risk interpreters” by helping the public understand not only what happened when disasters occurred, but also how insurance could help reduce the resulting financial losses.
“If I am not aware of something, how do I act on it?” he asked.
He identified low awareness, mistrust, complex insurance language, poor claims experience, weak enforcement of compulsory insurance laws and socio-economic challenges as major barriers to insurance uptake.
The don urged media organisations to strengthen insurance reporting through specialised desks, analytical reports, features, documentaries and social media content.
He said journalists should move beyond simply reporting the occurrence of disasters to examining the risks involved, the insurance protection available and whether affected individuals or organisations were adequately covered.
“We need to move from event framing to risk framing,” he said.
On the legal and regulatory framework, a legal practitioner, Dr Omogbai Omo-Eboh, SAN, said insurance provided a mechanism for sharing and managing the financial consequences of uncertain events.
Speaking on “Legal and Integrative Framework for National Insurance Policy: How to Make Insurance Work for the Individual, Government and the Economy,” Omo-Eboh said government must lead by example by ensuring that its assets, infrastructure and employees were adequately insured.
He said the effectiveness of insurance reforms and expanded compulsory insurance requirements would depend largely on implementation and enforcement.
Omo-Eboh urged government agencies to link insurance compliance to licences, permits, registration and public procurement, noting that technology could simplify verification and help reduce fraud.
The Senior Advocate also challenged journalists to investigate delayed claims, misleading practices and breaches of compulsory insurance requirements.
“When these things happen, yes, you report the disaster… but you never report the insurance aspect of it,” he said.
Also speaking, Lead Editor of an insurance publication, Mr Ifeanyi Uzoma, said insurance was relevant to virtually every area of journalism because risk was embedded in business, governance and everyday life.
Uzoma said journalists covering road crashes, building collapses, fires and other major incidents should ask whether the affected persons or properties were insured and examine the implications.
“You do not need to leave insurance reporting to those who are considered insurance reporters,” he said.
According to him, such questions could provide leads for deeper investigations while helping regulators and enforcement agencies identify gaps in compliance.
The experts called for sustained collaboration among the media, regulators, insurers, government and consumers to close the insurance information gap.
They said journalists could strengthen public confidence by explaining insurance products and processes in simple language, investigating how policies work in practice, scrutinising claims handling and drawing attention to regulatory and compliance failures.
They stressed that consistent, accessible and accountability-driven reporting would help Nigerians better understand insurance, their rights as policyholders and the protection available to them.
