An underwriter on Thursday advised insurance companies to create customer-friendly and customer-centric digital channels that would make them remain relevant in the future.

Mr. Akinyemi Alebiosu, an Investment and Strategy expert at Leadway Assurance, said this at a virtual training on Insurance For The Future in 2021.

The training was organised by Leadway Assurance for journalists covering the insurance sector in Lagos.

Alebiosu said that the insurance business in the future would be data-driven and thus insurance companies must have proper data, predict incidents of loss and properly price it.

“Data is the new oil and underwriting in the future is going to be driven by data and analytics,” he said.

According to him, the industry is getting to a point where it will be using historical records, robotics, artificial intelligence in making decisions of pricing, type, and extent of risks to be taken.

Alebiosu noted that insurance firms of the future would seek to collect large pools of data, analyze it and try to make meaning out of it.

He said the data would assist to prepare or create predictive models and finally take decisions that would make the product better.

“If we use data and analytics correctly in our underwriting process, the customer will be happy and all stakeholders will benefit from the insurance ecosystem,” he said.

The Leadway scribe explained that digital channels would soon displace insurance agents in spite of their current dominance in the market.

He said though insurance businesses is mainly dominated and driven by agents and brokers, the digital platforms would outnumber insurance agents in a matter of time.

“For future insurance companies and insurance products, we need to consciously gravitate from directly selling to customers to creating digital channels that are customer-friendly and customer-centric.

“For example, if I want to buy insurance, I do not need to call anyone but just go to the website and find what I need and make a purchase.

” We need to be able to meet our customers on social media because they want to send us messages and get an instant answer, as social media is also an avenue for customer education.

” If we compare the number of Nigerians on social media and the number of Nigerians that have insurance, you will see that we have a very long way to go.” he said.

According to him, Leadway is a solution-based company whose priority is to know the problems of its clients, the risks they are undertaking, and endeavor to solve them.

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Miss Adetola Adegbayi, Executive Director, General Business, Leadway Assurance, urged Nigerians to embrace insurance as it remains a key source of raising funds to carter for risks.

Adegbayi noted that Leadway Assurance over the years had provided succor to the insuring public through prompt payment of claims and would not relent in its course.