Demographics and Insurance Market Development in Nigeria

Abstract

Insurance market development is often measured in terms of penetration
which may depend on the prevailing demographics like life expectancy, fertility rate,
income distribution and dependency ratios. Many of these demographics emerge as
cohorts to savings and insurance behaviors. The matured economies are configuring
development in terms of longevity risks as compared with developing economies
that faces higher dependency ratios, lower life expectancy and high fertility rates and
active young population but with high unemployment, morbidity rate, mortality rate
poor Gini co-efficient. This paper adds to the literature on the implications of emerging
demographics on Nigeria’s insurance market development debacle. Using multiple
regression technique, the level of causal relationship of insurance market development
is tested on mortality rate, fertility rate, dependency ratio, unemployment rate, and
Gini co-efficient. It is found out that insurance market development in both life and
general insurance sectors is significantly negative to the explanatory variables. The
study suggests that policy on health and education expenditure should be increased
to mitigate high morbidity and mortality risks as well as generating employment
opportunities in other to sustain savings and insurance culture.