Managing Director of Custodian &Allied Insurance Plc, Mr. Wole Oshin said the government will not take insurance serious until the sector can contribute significantly to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country.

Oshin, who stated this in Lagos, noted that the insurance industry will not be reckoned with until its contribution to GDP will be something to write home about.

According to him, the MDRI can therefore not be coming at a better time as the initiative is capable of edging up the sectors contribution to the GDP as such placing the insurance sector in the scheme of things in the economy.

Meanwhile,    Mr. Kunle Elebute, an insurance consultant has tasked insurance operators in the country to rejuvenate the sector so that it can contribute meaningfully to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

According to him, “If insurance does not play a big part in what constitute the GDP of an economy, then it is irrelevant.” As such the Nigerian insurance industry can be said to be irrelevant in the economic terrain as its contribution to the GDP is still very much insignificant, Elebute lamented.

Elebute therefore charged insurance operators to sell insurance on the basis of the value that it will add to the client, so that the buying public will be attracted to insurance.

To plug into the vision 20:2020 of the federal government, Elebute reiterated that if the Nigerian economy attains the number 20 position in twenty years time, then the insurance industry must be number 20 in the world as well.

Hon. Lanre Laoshe, a former member of the House of Representatives and a stakeholder in the insurance industry noted that the insurance industry, being a part of the financial sector, can not stand by the way side while other industries map out strategies towards realising the vision 20:2020 agenda.