The managing director, Law Union & Rock Insurance Plc, Mr Jide Orimolade has expressed confidence that the N8.612 trillion national budget would support Insurance Industry growth.

Orimolade, who spoke at a parley with National Association of Insurance and Pension Correspondents (NAIPCO) in Lagos said the budget for 2018, if judiciously implemented would help the industry to experience rapid growth.

The MD explained that, “Federal Government has presented a proposal of N8.612 trillion budget with an improvement on capital expenditure which is 30.8 percent of the budget, coupled with the fact that the oil price is already $63.99 per barrel but budget proposal benched mark it as $45.

“With improve revenue, decrease in domestic borrowing (as the government has planned to reduce their borrowing share to 60 percent domestic and 40 percent foreign), with signal of decrease on interest on Treasury bill, there would definitely be an improvement in economic bubbling. Customer purchasing power is expected to increase.

“All things being equal, the insurance is expected to have a better share, better penetration and improve gross premium written in coming year.”

Meanwhile the management of Law Union and Rock Plc also at the same event said that its targeting to grow its gross premium in 2018 by 35 percent.

In achieving this, he said the company plans to reposition itself in the engineering sector and tap into the opportunities provided in the 2018 budget, assuring the 35 percent target is feasible .

He said that the 30.8 percent share of capital expenditure signal that a lot of activities which would require insurance service better than 2017 should be expected.
He also disclosed that LUR is leading with eight power plants and plan to do more in the new year.
He said that the engineering market is expected to contribute largely to the premium of the company in 2018.
Speaking further on retail business, he said “In 2018, we are going to be committed to effective distribution of most of our retail products. Most of them have already been deployed on our e-platform to make it easily available to the customers.”
On awareness creation, Mr. Orimolade s said the company would be looking at how to improve its image, brand visibility in the market.
On his expectations for the economy in 2018, he said: ” During the recession, every industry playing in Nigeria market were battered. And now that we are in recovery session, we will definitely recover together.
“We see a better economy clearly showing continuous decrease in consumer price index now at 15.91 percent, increase in crude oil price now at $62.99, foreign exchange dropping. All these indices show a better 2018,” he assured.