Perspectives of Inclusive Insurance

I. Introduction

We have become “familiar” with Inclusive Finance and several national financial inclusion strategies have been defined and implemented in several countries around the world, particularly in countries where the rate of access to formal financial services is low.

On the other hand, Inclusive Insurance, which should be a component of Inclusive Finance, is still taking its first steps, as a main component of any Financial Inclusion strategy. This is the case of Tunisia, where Inclusive Insurance / Microinsurance is one of the 5 pillars of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (SNIF) 2018 – 2022.

II-What does Inclusive Insurance mean?

By analogy with Inclusive Finance, Inclusive Insurance means Easy Access to insurance products and services adapted to all categories of the population and businesses, including low-income individuals and households and micro-enterprises. This ease of access must be accompanied by a wide and voluntary Use / Subscription to insurance products, without doing so under regulatory or legal requirements. This requires a wide distribution network for insurance products and products adapted to the needs and specificities of all categories of customers.

III-What about Inclusive Insurance in Tunisia?

As previously reported, the Tunisian authorities attach importance to the development of insurance among all categories of the Tunisian population, by integrating microinsurance into the SNIF 2018 – 2022 as one of the five components of the Strategy. In addition, microfinance institutions have been authorized for several years to distribute insurance products to their clients. This leads them to work with insurance companies to develop products and services adapted to their clients, particularly low-income people and micro-enterprises.

The Tunisian authorities continue to explore other measures to develop Inclusive Insurance, in partnership with the profession, represented by the FTUSA. In this regard, studies on new distribution networks to be explored such as telecommunications operators or the development of the digitalization of the end-to-end insurance policy subscription process are underway.

According to a study on the demand for inclusive insurance in Tunisia:

Most people prefer to save money to face possible future risks, while only 1% subscribe to an insurance policy
Most people wish to dedicate a monthly budget between 20 and 40 D for voluntary insurance policies
A large proportion of people wish to pay their insurance premium monthly or quarterly
More than half of people say they do not know about insurance products at all, without seeking information

Overall, this study shows a certain willingness of the different categories of society for insurance products if they are informed more and better about these products which must be developed in a way that is well adapted to each market segment in terms of risks to be covered, prices, payment terms and the compensation period in the event of risk.

In this regard, index insurance could be a product to explore and offer to farmers to better develop their resilience to different risks, particularly risks related to climate change.

Efforts are still to be developed by the various stakeholders to strengthen Inclusive Insurance, knowing that a certain willingness on the part of the population for insurance really exists.