The Philippines is planning to cover around 50 million of its citizens by microinsurance by 2022, according to the Insurance Commission head Dennis Funa. Currently, there are around 48.22 million Filipinos covered by microinsurance in the Philippines.
Dennis Funa told the media, “We are still in the process of gathering pertinent data to have an overview on microinsurance this year in consideration of the events that have transpired… However, we are expecting a significant increase in the number of claims for this year, not only for microinsurance policies but also for the entire insurance industry as a whole, considering that 2020 is marred by a series of catastrophes such as the Taal volcano eruption, the Covid-19 outbreak, typhoon Rolly and recently, typhoon Ulysses.”
Typhoon Ulysses, which struck the Philippines in November, caused infrastructural damage worth $126.61 million. According to the Philippines’ National Disaster Risk Reduction on Management Council, the estimated cost of agricultural damage inflicted by the typhoon stood at around PHP4 billion.
The insurance sector in the Philippines is also facing a different number of challenges this year starting from the coronavirus pandemic to the typhoon. Mr Jun Jay Perez, executive director at Microinsurance MBA Association of the Philippines (MiMAP) said that as of September 2020, revenues of 18 microinsurance mutual benefit associations under the MiMAP network is down by a combined amount of $17.3 million year-on-year.
According to a survey conducted by global information and insights provider Nielsen, SUN Life of Canada (Philippines), remains to be the Filipinos’ most trusted life insurance brand.