TACLOBAN CITY- The nationwide financial literacy roadshow on  micro-insurance kicked off here in the region yesterday aiming to form an advocacy group that will push for “higher awareness of and appreciation for micro-insurance and risk protection” among low income households.

 
Department of Finance – National Credit Council (DOF-NCC) deputy executive director Joselito Almario said that they will step up their campaign in 16 regions up to next year as he raised concern on reports that only 13% of the country’s population has life insurance and only 1% with non-life insurance.

“It has been an impression that insurance are only for those who are in the higher class. We are promoting micro-insurance because this is intended for the low income families. Premium on this product can be as low as P30 a month,”  Almario told Leyte Samar Daily Express.

Through this drive, the official expects that micro-insurance will gain the same coverage like micro-financing where reached areas are down to poor communities. He claimed that since they introduced this policy, their office noted some two million clients last year by commercial insurance companies, up than the less than 50,000 registrations in the past years.

“The roadshow begins with three-day training where future advocates learn about the importance of risk protection and how micro-insurance can help mitigate the effects of these risks to common people,”  Almario said.

The training will form a corps of micro-insurance advocates from government, insurance companies and intermediaries, civil society, support organizations, and donors.

“These future micro-insurance advocates are envisioned to help address two causes of low insurance coverage among the low-income sector – the lack of awareness of insurance and low financial literacy level.

The roadshow is being pushed by the Insurance Commission in partnership with DOF-NCC, German International Cooperation – Microinsurance Innovations Program for Social Security (GIZ-MIPSS) and the Asian Development Bank – Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (ADB-JFPR).

After Eastern Visayas, the group will also carry out the same activity in 15 other regions in the country.

GIZ-MIPSS senior finance adviser Dante Portula said in a separate interview that the international agency has been assisting the government under its four-year program that will expire in 2012.

“We have to popularize micro-insurance.  Strokes of fate such as illnesses, injuries, or even death of family members, loss of property or natural catastrophes could happen to anybody – but low-income families have to cope even harder with these risks because the effect on their limited financial possibilities could be fatal,” Portula stressed.

He said that GIZ has been assisting the government in capacitating insurance providers to carry out their functions in education and further training, transparency, data collection, research, reinsurance, product development in an efficient, conflict sensitive and sustainable manner.

ADB and GIZ also formulated a regulatory framework and national strategy for the country’s microinsurance.

“We provide a regulatory space for the private sector easier to come in and tap the low income sectors. We have created agents and train them. These include micro-financing institutions, community-based organization and cooperatives,” said Ma. Piedad Geron, ADB micro-finance specialist.

“Through this strategy, we will be able to advance micro-insurance in communities. We will tap the organizations that are in direct contact with low income sector. There is mutual trust because they have been dealing with them for a long time,” Geron said. (Sarwell Q. Meniano)