Accra, April 02, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Tuesday called on Insurance Companies to take advantage of the vast market created through the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to provide cover to Ghanaians who are yet to join the scheme.

He said it was the wish of the Government that as many insurance companies as possible would avail themselves of appropriate licenses to operate health insurance businesses.

President Kufuor was inaugurating a multi-million six-storey ultra-modern Head Office building of GLICO Life, a giant in the insurance industry, at Adabraka in Accra. The company, which has been operating in the country for about 20 years, employs more than 500 Ghanaians.

President Kufuor noted that insurance in many ways was still largely a virgin industry in the country with a huge undeveloped market. Until the advent of the NHIS, insurance, he observed was alien to the larger section of the population.

Some members of the society in the past had shied away from life insurance policies as a result of the then prevailing high level inflation that rendered policies valueless upon maturation. He said, with the era of uncontrollable inflation gone and the national economy enjoying stability, the challenge now was for the companies to win back public confidence through education and to target the population with affordable and easily accessible life insurance policies.

President Kufuor praised GLICO for the different subsidiary companies it had set up to engage in life, non-life and health insurance operation and said the Government was appreciative of the support and contribution of the insurance industry to national development. He said as the national economy grew and investments increased, especially in the face of the recent oil discovery, demand for high quality insurance products was bound to increase. It was in response to this that the Government has promulgated a New Insurance Law to improve operational efficiency and create opportunities to stimulate further growth of the industry. The law, he said was aimed, among other things, at ensuring adequate capitalization of the companies, improve corporate governance and to adequately protect policy holders.

President Kufuor said deregulation of composite insurance companies by the law implied that insurance companies that were currently composite should separate their life and non-life businesses. The Deputy Finance Minister, Professor George Gyan-Baffour, asked the companies to design more life products to make this aspect of insurance more attractive to Ghanaians.

They should also make good use of the Insurance Training Centre to get their staff to be properly trained for enhanced service delivery. Mr. Kwame Achampong-Kusi, the Chief Executive Officer of GLICO, said their vision was to reach out to every Ghanaian household with life insurance.