Insurance contributes to managing the risks of economic assets, and is considered the most prominent tool for the stability and continuity of these sectors in their activities, while the Financial Supervision Authority was keen to activate the sector’s contribution to the gross domestic product, by updating the legislation regulating the activity.
Dr. Mohamed Gouda, Head of the Department of Insurance and Actuarial Sciences at the Faculty of Commerce at Cairo University, said that the sector includes about 42 companies, but it does not contribute adequately to the gross domestic product, due to weak insurance awareness, starting from school students to universities. He added that major companies must raise awareness through seminars and events in a variety of ways, which requires a greater role than what the Insurance Federation does, whether limited advertising or seminars and conferences that do not reach the targets.
He explained that increasing insurance awareness results in a growth in the size of the sector’s contribution, as it reaches large proportions in some countries, while it contributes approximately less than 0.5% in Egypt, while the matter did not come out of nowhere, and requires a comprehensive strategy to increase awareness, so that the public knows that insurance is necessary. It is important to protect various assets.
Gouda pointed out that the Financial Supervision Authority aims to increase the insurance sector’s contribution to 1% of the gross domestic product, and double the total premiums to 100 billion pounds by 2026, which requires doubling these numbers to achieve the target. He explained that the “Financial Supervision” had targeted insurance company investments of at least 500 billion pounds annually during the next three years, from about 48 billion pounds currently, in addition to that awareness will deepen the concept of saving among large segments of citizens.
Judeh explained that spreading awareness requires unconventional alternatives to deal with citizens and attract them to insurance companies and reach them, away from formalities and useless activities.