Insurance penetration low in Pakistan

KARACHI: The insurance penetration in Pakistan is miserably low, the Executive Director Insurance of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) Nasreen Rashid said on Thursday.
Nasreen Rashid said the need of the hour is to increase the insurance penetration in Pakistan. “Now our focus is the microinsurance for the people from lower income groups”, she remarked. She said steps would be taken for the promotion of the microinsurance in the country.This, she pointed out, would be all-inclusive product would cover everything relevant, adding efforts would be made for the creation of enabling environment for the promotion of insurance in the country.She also highlighted the significance of the insurance but regretted that awareness in this connection is quite low in this very respect.Whereas, Tariq Hussain and Farazuddin Amjad- both from the SECP Insurance Division, highlighted the vision which is aimed at promoting orderly development of a financially strong and transparent insurance, thereby increasing the insurance penetration in Pakistan. Arguably, in Pakistan, the insurance penetration is mere 0.7 percent of the GDP, which is believed to be the lowest in the region as well as in the world. The insurance industry remained ignored in the country for decades.