The Reserve Bank of Malawi (RMB) has predicted that there will be a significant rise in numbers of people who will be accessing life and property insurance services in the next five to 10 years in the country.
This comes as the central bank disclosed that a recent survey revealed that only about three percent of Malawians have their lives or property insured.
Deputy Governor for RBM responsible for supervision Grant Kabango said the country registers low numbers as insurance services are not well understood among most Malawians.
Kabango made the remarks after the official opening of the 2014 Financial Literacy Week being observed under the theme ‘Building a Financially Literate Nation’.
In an interview with Malawi News Agency (Mana), the deputy governor said among other objectives planned in this year’s financial literacy week, stakeholders in the insurance business will take time to educate people on the importance and advantages of having insurance.
We are hoping that we will improve from the three percent you have heard of and we are very confident on this because you might be aware that previously the insurance companies were never regulated by RBM but now these companies are being regulated by the RBM.
We believe that with the efforts that the insurance companies have been putting together and also what the RBM is doing, we should be able to disseminate information regarding insurance whether it be life or property insurance. In this case, we expect the numbers to increase in the next five to ten years, said Kabango.
The which financial literacy week is meant to accord the general public with information on services that are provided by various financial institutions like banks, insurance companies, pension institutions amongst others.
This year’s event was officially opened by Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe at Community Centre Ground in Lilongwe.
The Financial Literacy Week will be observed from October 27-31. Among other activities, there will be walk in clinics of various financial institutions and mobile outreach programmes.
