Nigerian multimillionaire Tony Elumelu dives into insurance business

Nigerian multimillionaire and philanthropist Tony Elumelu is entering the insurance market.

Elumelu made the announcement this week while unveiling two investment entities at the commissioning of Heirs Tower, a commercial real estate complex.

Heirs Insurance and Heirs Life Assurance are the newest subsidiaries of Elumelu’s Heirs Holdings. Through the companies, he plans to deliver insurance packages that are easy to understand, quick and reliable.

Proshare recently reported that only one in every 200,000 Nigerians has an insurance policy, while the insurance sector accounted for a mere 0.3 percent of Nigeria’s GDP in 2020.

The report revealed that many Nigerians ignore insurance as a result of poor product awareness, poor purchasing power and confusion as to how and where to begin the process of enrolling.

Attending the event were Lagos State Executive Governor Baba Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Nigeria’s Commissioner for Insurance Sunday Thomas and a host of bank CEOs, as well as other corporate executives.

“I want to say that we are coming with a strong track record, not just on governance, but on business success and business turn around and most importantly, wealth creation for all,” Elumelu said. “We believe that prosperity should be democratized; success for us will not only be felt by the shareholders but would be felt by everybody, including our communities as we strive to eradicate poverty.”

Meanwhile, Sanwo-Olu said the private sector must be encouraged to participate actively in the economy.

“We need to encourage the private sector because they are the real engines of growth; we need to acknowledge that no matter how well the government does, we certainly cannot employ everybody that needs to be employed and the private sector are the ones that can create opportunities for our businesses and they are the ones that can grow the GDP,” Sanwo-Olu said.