By Bernard AKYIN-ARKOH &Janice Ama ANDOH
“During a casual conversation, a friend shared an astonishing story about his 4-year-old nephew in the United States. As the family was preparing to move states, the little boy insisted they insure their house keys.
When asked why, he replied, ‘So if the keys get lost, the insurance people will pay for it.’ This innocent yet profound statement left us pondering: How does a child so young understand the basic tenet of insurance?
Was it taught in school or at home? Is he regularly exposed to content about risk and loss?”
For many Ghanaians, insurance remains an abstract concept, something encountered only in adulthood, if at all. Majority encountered the concept of insurance in their adult age and they see it as a profession but in real life, insurance is not just a profession but as a critical life skill.
This revelation compels many to ask: What is lacking in Ghana’s approach to financial literacy? More importantly, how can we bridge this gap and instill the importance of insurance in everyday life?
Insurance Demystified: A Safety Net for Life’s Uncertainties
At its core, insurance is a safety net. You pay a small, regular premium and in return, you’re protected against significant financial losses from accidents, illnesses, or other unforeseen events.
But a common rebuttal arises: “What if nothing bad happens? Isn’t it a waste of money?”
To answer this, consider another question: Why do you save money? Just as savings prepare us for future needs, insurance prepares us for risks, because life is inherently uncertain. Some risks are minor, like spilling coffee on your laptop, while others are life-altering, such as a sudden illness, job loss, or property damage.
Let’s consider Mr. Addo’s double tragedy, who returned from his graduation celebration to find his car in flames, coming just weeks after his home collapsed due to faulty construction.
Or Elsie Kaman’s struggle, an average-income mother facing her husband’s six-month dialysis treatment while trying to support three children. These aren’t hypothetical scenarios – they’re actual situations where insurance could mean the difference between recovery and financial ruin.
These true stories underscore a harsh reality: emergencies don’t discriminate. Insurance isn’t a luxury, it’s a lifeline.
Why Insurance Matters for Ghana
A widespread understanding of insurance can transform Ghanaian households and the economy at large:
Protection for vulnerable families: Most Ghanaians live on daily wages. A single accident or medical emergency can devastate an entire household’s finances. Health insurance (like NHIS) prevents medical bills from draining savings, while motor and property insurance cushion costly losses.
Support for micro and small businesses: Market traders, farmers, and artisans face daily risks like fires, theft, or crop failure. Microinsurance products offer affordable coverage, enabling them to recover from setbacks and sustain their livelihoods.
Long-term security for children and dependents: Life insurance ensures dependents are cared for if tragedy strikes the breadwinner. Educational plans help parents save for school fees, securing their children’s futures.
Employment and economic growth: The insurance sector offers career opportunities and contributes to Ghana’s GDP.
Catalyst for Economic Growth: The insurance industry supports economic development by investing unused premiums into projects such as construction, infrastructure, and other key areas. These investments are made through stocks, corporate and government bonds, and real estate mortgages.
Promote Entrepreneurship: Insurance promotes entrepreneurship by providing financial security, encouraging individuals to start and grow businesses, which in turn supports economic development and growth.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI): The insurance industry attracts foreign direct investment (FDI) through the establishment of foreign company branches, boosting capital, expertise, and innovation. This enhances sector growth, promotes competition, and contributes significantly to Ghana’s overall economic development.
Taking Insurance to the Classroom: A Blueprint for Ghana
It is essential for Ghana to prioritize the inclusion of insurance education within its academic curriculum, as has been successfully implemented in various countries around the world, including parts of Africa.
By doing so, the nation can unlock the full benefits of insurance for both its citizens and the broader economy. Achieving this goal will require a well-structured, strategic approach that ensures the effective integration of insurance concepts into all levels of education.
Introducing Insurance Education in Ghana’s Basic and Secondary School System.
Currently, insurance education is not formally included in Ghana’s basic or secondary school curricula, although regulators and other organizations have been conducting outreach efforts to raise awareness. Ghana could consider integrating insurance concepts into the curriculum starting from basic education (Primary 5 to JHS 3) through to senior high school levels.
A tiered approach is essential to match the content with the students’ developmental stages. At the basic education level (primary and junior high), the focus should be on simple, relatable, and interactive lessons.
Subjects like OWOP (Our World Our People), History, and Mathematics can incorporate basic ideas about risk, saving, and protection using practical examples—such as how the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) helps families access healthcare or how agricultural insurance protects farmers against drought losses. Methods like storytelling, educational games, and visual aids will make these abstract ideas easier and more engaging for young learners.
At the senior high school level, insurance education should become more formalized within subjects such as Business Studies, Economics, and Social Studies. Students can learn about various insurance products (life, motor, fire), how premiums are calculated, the claims process, and the role of regulatory agencies like the NIC. Practical case studies—such as a local business recovering from a fire through insurance—can make the lessons more concrete and memorable.
Kenya has successfully implemented a grassroots insurance education program called “Bima Mashinani,” led by the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA). This initiative integrates insurance education into the secondary school curriculum in partnership with the Ministry of Education and the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD).
Key elements include the creation of Insurance Clubs in schools, national essay and art competitions, and the use of creative tools like comic books (“Ndoto Ya Bima”), radio dramas, and TV shows to explain insurance concepts simply. The program receives support from partners such as Financial Sector Deepening Kenya (FSDK), the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), and the Association of Kenya Insurers (AKI).
Since its launch, “Bima Mashinani” has reached over 100 schools and thousands of students, greatly enhancing youth awareness and positively influencing insurance decisions within households. Ghana can draw valuable lessons from Kenya’s experience by adopting a similar multi-stakeholder, creative, and educational approach to improve insurance literacy across its education system.
Expanding Insurance Education Across Tertiary Institutions in Ghana
In Ghana, although formal insurance education is available at institutions like the Ghana Insurance College and certain university programs, it is not yet widely integrated across most tertiary curricula.
To address this, universities and colleges should broaden their offerings by introducing specialized courses in insurance, risk management, and actuarial science, ideally making some of these core requirements.
Partnerships with industry players such as the Ghana Insurance College and leading insurance companies can offer valuable opportunities for internships, mentorships, and guest lectures, giving students practical insights and career exposure. Such collaboration also helps align academic programs with industry demands, ensuring graduates are equipped with relevant skills.
Currently, the University of Ghana offers a BSc Administration with an Insurance option through the Business School, and the Executive MBA includes risk management and insurance modules.
Other institutions like the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology also offer courses touching on insurance within their finance and risk management programs. However, Ghana should expand by introducing dedicated full insurance programs in these universities, similar to the University of Ghana’s approach.
By adopting these measures and drawing on international examples, Ghana can strengthen insurance education at the tertiary level, resulting in improved literacy, enhanced risk management capabilities, and a stronger insurance industry overall.
Empowering Teachers and Involving Communities
Teachers play a crucial role as the main carriers of insurance knowledge and need proper training to teach these concepts effectively.
The Ghana Education Service (GES) and National Insurance Commission (NIC) should arrange targeted workshops and training programs to provide teachers with practical materials, standardized lesson plans, and up-to-date teaching methods for financial literacy.
Beyond schools, engaging communities through Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) meetings and outreach initiatives is vital to reinforce insurance’s importance, ensuring a unified message on risk management and financial protection between schools and families.
In South Africa, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has created a comprehensive model to improve financial literacy via public-private partnerships, focusing on empowering both teachers and community volunteers.
Their Consumer Education Department offers an Accredited Financial Literacy Facilitator Course, which equips participants with hands-on knowledge in areas like personal finance, short-term insurance, and life insurance.
These courses are CPD-certified, helping educators boost their professional credentials while gaining skills to teach others. Graduates become ambassadors for financial and insurance literacy in their communities, extending the program’s reach beyond classrooms.
This example highlights the power of multi-stakeholder collaboration in advancing financial education. Ghana could adopt a similar model by launching CPD-accredited insurance training for teachers and collaborating with insurance companies through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs.
Enhancing Insurance Education through Interactive and Experiential Learning
To boost engagement and improve knowledge retention, insurance education should go beyond traditional textbook teaching and incorporate interactive, hands-on learning methods. Activities like simulations and role-playing can help students grasp complex ideas by having them act as policyholders and agents in mock insurance claim scenarios, allowing them to better understand paperwork and typical challenges.
Group projects can involve studying real-life cases of local business owners, such as maize farmers or shopkeepers, and creating tailored insurance plans to address their risks. Additionally, schools might conduct disaster recovery exercises where students decide how to allocate fictional insurance payouts following events like floods or fires, helping them learn prioritization and financial planning during emergencies.
Leveraging Digital Innovations to Advance Insurance Education
Digital tools offer a promising way to enhance insurance education, especially given Ghana’s growing access to technology. An Insurance Hub App could be developed for classroom use, incorporating gamified elements like quizzes, animated lessons, and reward systems to engage and motivate students.
Short, relatable videos on platforms such as YouTube and TikTok could simplify insurance concepts—showing, for instance, how a family benefits from health insurance or how a trader recovers from theft with business coverage.
Where feasible, virtual reality (VR) experiences could immerse students in real-life scenarios like hospital visits or accident assessments, fostering a deeper, more tangible understanding of insurance. These digital solutions also support personalized learning, allowing students to advance at their own pace while enabling teachers to track progress through data analytics.
- Fostering Effective Insurance Education Through Industry Collaboration and Institutional Support
Collaboration with the insurance industry is essential to bridge the gap between theory and practical experience. Professionals from firms like Vanguard Assurance, Star Assurance, and Enterprise Group can visit schools as guest speakers to share their career stories and dispel common misconceptions, such as the belief that “insurance is a scam.” Organizing field visits to claims processing centers or actuarial departments would offer students direct exposure to industry operations.
Additionally, insurers could sponsor innovation challenges where students create microinsurance solutions tailored for vulnerable groups like kayayei (head porters) or fishermen, promoting creativity and social consciousness.
For these initiatives to be effective, strong institutional backing is crucial. The Ministry of Education and the National Insurance Commission (NIC) should work together to standardize digital learning materials across both urban and rural schools, equip teachers with training in interactive teaching techniques, and foster public-private partnerships to finance technology, simulations, and industry engagement programs.
By adopting this holistic strategy—integrating teacher training, tiered curricula, experiential learning, digital tools, and industry collaboration—Ghana can nurture a generation that sees insurance as a vital tool for financial security and national progress. This transformation will empower future leaders to make informed decisions, enhance economic stability, and drive innovation within the insurance sector.
The Bigger Picture: Benefits of Integrating Insurance Education into Ghana’s School System
Incorporating insurance education into Ghana’s academic curriculum goes beyond simply preparing students for careers in the insurance field. At its heart, this initiative aims to equip young Ghanaians with vital financial literacy skills that will support them throughout their lives. By instilling a solid understanding of risk management and protection, we empower an entire generation to make informed financial choices that secure their future well-being.
The societal advantages of this shift would be significant and wide-ranging:
Reducing Poverty from Emergencies
One of the most crucial outcomes would be fewer families falling into poverty due to unforeseen events. Many households currently face financial devastation when dealing with medical emergencies, accidents, or natural disasters. Through insurance education, future generations will learn how to safeguard themselves from such financial shocks, contributing to a more financially stable population.
Building Business Resilience
This knowledge will also strengthen Ghana’s businesses. Entrepreneurs and small business owners with a good grasp of insurance will be better equipped to manage risks, recover from losses, and maintain operations during tough times. Such resilience will help create a more stable and thriving national economy capable of withstanding various challenges.
Growth of the Insurance Industry
The insurance sector itself will greatly benefit. As awareness and demand for insurance increase, the industry will expand, generating diverse career opportunities—from underwriting to claims handling. This growth will fuel innovation as the sector evolves to meet the needs of a more insurance-savvy public.
Long-Term Socioeconomic Stability
Ultimately, introducing insurance education is an investment in Ghana’s enduring social and economic health. Educated consumers will stimulate market expansion, which in turn creates more opportunities and strengthens financial security for all citizens. This holistic approach promises a more prosperous and resilient Ghana, better prepared to face uncertainties and seize opportunities for development.
Laying the Foundation for a Secure Future
By prioritizing insurance education today, Ghana sets the stage for a safer and more prosperous tomorrow. This transformation starts with understanding insurance not as a cost but as a smart investment in peace of mind and financial protection. Early and engaging education can nurture a generation that confronts risk with knowledge instead of fear. The time to act is now—delaying only leaves families exposed to life’s uncertainties.
As we strive to close this knowledge gap, we must reflect: What future do we envision for Ghana? One where financial shocks devastate families and businesses, or one where a culture of preparedness empowers the nation to weather any storm? The answer begins in our classrooms today.
Conclusion
Integrating insurance education into Ghana’s schools is essential for building a financially resilient society. Teaching insurance early empowers individuals and businesses to manage risks and avoid financial ruin.
Lessons from other African countries show that with the right approach, Ghana can transform insurance into a practical tool for everyday life. This education will strengthen the insurance industry, boost economic stability, and create jobs. Acting now ensures a more secure and prosperous future for all Ghanaians.
References
Akyin-Arkoh, B. (2024). Ghana’s insurance landscape: A comprehensive guide to general insurance. Accra, Ghana:
Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) Kenya – Strategic Plan 2018–2022: www.ira.go.ke
IRA & FSD Kenya – Financial Literacy and Inclusion Report, 2021: www.fsdkenya.org
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Bernard is the Branch Manager, Star Assurance Limited
JANICE is an Underwriter, Vanguard Assurance Company Limited
