Niger Insurance wants public to take advantage of Takaful for savings

Underwriting firm, Niger Insurance plc has counseled members of the public to embrace Takaful insurance as the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) is striving to ensure that all adults in Nigeria are adequately protected by insurance.

As part of NAICOM’s ongoing pursuit to increase insurance penetration in the country and increase the contribution of insurance to GDP, the need for Takaful-Insurance was identified following detailed research.

Kola Adedeji, the company’s managing director, who made this call during a chat with journalists in Lagos recently, informed that Niger Insurance has a policy called Mutual Halal Plan which is based on this Islamic profit sharing and reciprocal guarantee principle of al-takaful.

He explained that Mutual Halal is a life insurance scheme with a savings and investment plan designed for muslims and other interested parties in the country.

While Mutual Halal aims at encouraging Muslim s and sisters to save and mobilise fund to meet the financial obligations involved in performing certain religious rites without subjecting themselves to financial hardships, he emphasised that non-muslims can also purchase the policy.

Under this plan, the policyholders can save regularly for a period that is convenient for them and the accumulated amount can be used to finance religious obligations such as performing Hajj, buying of ram for Sallah, marriage, he noted.

Besides, Adedeji pointed out that the policy could also be used to meet other medium and long-term financial obligations such as retirement, purchase of land or house, self and children’s education, travelling expenses as well as unexpected commitments.

In this regard, he said there is a marriage plan (Al Nikah) designed to make sure that people can make their dream about matrimonial bliss come true, while there is a mortgage plan (Al Binau) which offers policyholder the life-time opportunity to own a home of his own.

Additionally, there is a pilgrimage plan to enable people fulfill the vital religious obligation of going to mecca in a stress-free manner, people can use Sallah plan for the celebration, while education plan (Al-Tadris) is designed to help people bequeath this legacy to their children and there is a retirement plan (Waqifl’amal) to help people look forward to a life of basic comfort in retirement.