Low life insurance penetration in Sri Lanka triggers joint mega awareness campaign by local insurance companies
Insurance companies are striving hard to ensure a large segment of Sri Lanka’s population is covered by life insurance, particularly so today when the country’s ageing segment is growing. In this context, the Insurance Association of Sri Lanka (IASL) declared September as a month of ‘Life Insurance’ and kicked off the campaign on Tuesday at the Arcade Independence Square in Colombo.
IASL President Dirk Pereira, speaking to the Business Times on the sidelines of the event, said that insurance companies have a variety of initiatives to roll out life insurance policies on a regular basis. The economy is taking off and thus therefore disposable incomes will be better than what it was a couple of years ago. “We are plugging into positive activities like this which will be held on a national level.”
Life insurance penetration in the country at the moment is 28 per cent of the working population, according to the Sri Lanka Insurance Board (IBSL)’s annual report. In terms of the entire population, the life insurance reach is only around 12 per cent. This year the IASL decided to focus on life insurance while next year have similar initiatives and a national campaign for general insurance, added Mr. Pereira.
He stated that the campaign will also address issues which will have a long term positive impact not only for the industry, but for the whole country. “As insurers, our role is to help protect everyone and the underlining objective in this campaign is to urge people to take that extra step to ensure protection to live life.”
IBSL Director General Damayanthi Fernando endorsed the campaign stating that it is ‘a timely and necessary industry initiative’, adding that, “Enhancing life insurance penetration has been and continues to be one of the biggest challenges before us. With the ever-changing socio-economic landscape and shifting demographics in the country, we encourage the industry to pursue such forward-thinking programmes which will educate and create a greater awareness about life insurance among the general public.”