The National Insurance Commission (NIC) has achieved its target of training 10,000 youth as insurance salespersons for the country’s industry.

The training of the youth as insurance agents were instituted by the Commission in 2019 as part of its initiatives to help them develop careers in the insurance profession.

Commissioner of Insurance Dr Justice Ofori made this disclosure on the sideline of a training programme organised for some 70 National Service Personnel by the NIC in collaboration with the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service in Kumasi.

Impressed with the level of enthusiasm and interest shown by the youth, which has culminated into these numbers, Dr Ofori was excited about the fact that the target of 10,000 youth has been achieved just a few years after the commencement of the training programmes.

He used the opportunity to encourage the youth to pursue careers in insurance as the industry presents them with a lot of potential for personal and national development.

Dr Ofori commended the Ghana Insurance College (GIC), which facilitated the training programmes and continues to do so across the country.

The Ghana Insurance College is Ghana's premier Insurance training institution established in 2006 by the NIC, Ghana Insurers Association (GIA), Chartered Insurance Institute of Ghana (CIIG) and the Insurance Brokers Association of Ghana (IBAG) with the view to providing the manpower needs for the insurance industry.

The institution has since trained thousands of people, out of which about 350 have attained the Chartered Insurance status.

Apart from insurance industry players, the College runs programmes for other professionals such as Lawyers, Medical Practitioners, Engineers, Public Servants, Bankers, Accountants, etc.

Speaking on the need for collaboration between the NIC and the Police MTTD at the training launch of National Service Personnel posted to the MTTD, Dr Ofori underscored the importance of providing education on insurance to all categories of people to enable them to appreciate the importance of insurance as a risk management mechanism.

"We realiseds that there is the need to demystify insurance, and to do so, the first group of people we need to deal with are the Police and other security agencies. With the Police, though the law stipulates clearly that people should not drive motor vehicles without insurance on our roads, the NIC together with the insurance companies cannot, on their own, enforce the law hence the collaborative support of the Police" he intimated.