Business News of Monday, 26 November 2018
Source: Myjoyonline.com
2018-11-26
Executive Chairman of the GLICO Group, Kwame Achampong Kyei
Executive Chairman of the GLICO Group, Kwame Achampong Kyei, has called on the insurance industry to consider their product development towards helping the country achieve its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets.
He believes that in geographic areas where there are marked instances of poverty, young people can take advantage of opportunities to learn a skill, stay in school or invest savings in starting a business.
“But for this to happen it is important that players in the financial sector begin to look at micro-credit and micro-insurance mechanisms that provide a springboard for these young people to get out of poverty.”
His call comes at a time when the GLICO Group is seeking to consolidate the gains it has made in micro-insurance and has begun looking at exploiting the opportunities arising from government’s attempt to deepen social protection for marginalized groups.
Ghana has been actively involved in the process to agree on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) since consultations began in 2012.
As the successors to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the SDGs, and the underpinning Agenda 2030, sought from the beginning to be inclusive and participatory.
Ghana was one of the initial 20 nations selected for national consultations on the theme, “The World We Want”, for the post-2015 development agenda and played numerous other roles at global level throughout the process leading to the adoption of the SDGs.
Ghana was also the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to reduce poverty by half and thus met the Millennium Development Goal 1. Nevertheless, deep poverty remains in most rural areas, especially in the three northern regions.
In urban areas, where poverty incidence has seen some substantial decline, greater disparities and inequalities are being noticed. The overall survival rates of children in Ghana have improved over the past ten years.
Malaria is the leading cause of death for children under five, and malnutrition is a significant indirect cause of child mortality.
This makes the SDG 1 & 3 (no poverty and good health and well being, respectively) critical for the Ghanaian context and it is imperative that social enterprises and the financial services sector, for instance, begin to look at in terms of product development for marginalized groups.
According to the United Nations, the insurance sector plays a critical role – as investor and underwriter – in supporting resilience, sustainable development and enabling other investments.
As an investor, the insurance industry has significant assets that can be invested in projects supporting the SDGs.
Also, as an underwriter, it finances rapid response to disasters but also can incentivize investments that support sustainability (such as in climate-smart infrastructure, food security, and resilience), de-risk investments, pool risks, and provide risk pricing to creditors.
To help achieve this, the Executive Chairman of the GLICO Group Kwame Achampong Kyei believes policymakers, communities and families can help make many opportunities available to deprived youth.
He also said social enterprises and companies like his own insurance firms can be the pivots around such an agenda urging those in the sector to put their shoulders to the wheel.