INSURANCE AND SOLVING OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN NIGERIA

Countries faced with social challenges devise several means of tackling these problems of which the use of insurance is one of such. Moreover, the main difference between the developed and the developing nations lies more in that the developed nations have fashioned out means of timely solving the problems than the developing ones especially through the use of insurance. Insurance in no small ways have been used by the USA, Britain, Germany and a host of others to solves some of these social problems. Insurance companies on the other hand have provided Corporate Social Responsibilities’ products to the citizens of these countries. These is not the case in developing countries including Nigeria. This study examined the impacts of insurance in explaining social challenges in Nigeria, taking into cognisance the impact of insurance on social problems in the country. This simple research design was adopted from the qualitative perspective. This involves the use of research instruments to collect primary data from the target respondents which consist of mainly insurance staff working in the Lagos Island area of Lagos State, Nigeria. The population of the study is infinite since the research is on social problems that affects the majority of Nigerian over 220 million citizens. Hence, the researcher had to adopt convenient sampling method to selected few people for the study. A total of 350 copies of questionnaires were administered with 343 copies completed and return to the researcher. Analysis based on research questions reveals that there is relationship between the impacts of insurance on the reduction of social challenges in Nigeria. This by implication is that if there are more insurance operations in the country there will be reduction of social challenges. Also, insurance companies should embark on those activities that could help the government reduce social challenges in the country. Insurance has advanced in a way that apart from its application to pure risks, it could also be used to solve social problems which could either be fundamental or speculative risks. The study has empirically shown that insurance impacts on social challenges in the country and there is a significant relationship between the use of insurance and the solving of social problems which could be effectively be adopted in the country in solving or bring some forms of reliefs to families that are victims of kidnapping, terrorism, rape among others.