Chairman, Mofes Insurance Brokers Limited, Prof Festus Mobolaji Epetimehin will deliver an inaugural lecture on Mircro-insurance to hundreds of scholars and residents in Osun State.
Epetimehin who is also a Professor of Insurance and Risk Management, Dean College of Management Sciences of the institution will lecture on ‘Small But Big: Micro-insurance and the reduction of social risk of poverty’ at Joseph Ayo Babalola University in Akure, Osun State mid-next month
According to him, “Micro-insurance is considered as one of the most effective means of reducing the vulnerability of the poor from the impacts of disease, theft, violence, disability, fire and other hazards. Insurance protects against unexpected losses by pooling the resources of the many to compensate for the losses of the few, the more uncertain the event the more insurance becomes the most economical form of protection.”
The 65 year-old insurance expert with experience spanning over 35 years explained that there is an unjust paradox that the poor are the most vulnerable to hazard but have little or no access to efficient risk management strategies.
“The reality is that the risk management process of the poor has to be transformed or completed by giving access to new opportunities. In this way the poor become more empowered through the possibility to make choices.”
The Professor noted, “Micro-insurance could be such a new opportunity. It is a system that protects poor people against specific shocks, using risk pooling, in return for regular affordable premium payments proportionate to the likelihood and cost of the risk involved.”
He expatiated that Micro-insurance does alleviate poverty by reducing the impact of hazard in rural areas but protects the clients from risk, reduces MFI loan default, and earns additional income for the MFIs, enhancing outreach and scalability.
“Micro-insurance is thus a useful complement to, rather than a substitute for, savings and credit in protecting the poor against risk and allows them to retain and develop financial, social and human capital in the long term.”
