Insurance Sector Rebounds, Records 16.41% Growth In Q2, 2021

The insurance sector returned to growth path after recording 16.41 per cent growth in the second quarter of the 2021.

This is according to statistics obtained on Sunday from the National Bureau of Statistics on second quarter performance for the finance and insurance sector.

According to the figures, the insurance sector which contracted by 2.08 per cent in Q1, 2021; 12.05 per cent in Q4, 2020; 16.54 per cent in Q3, 2020; 28.15 per cent in Q2, 2020 had earlier recorded 5.64 per cent growth in Q1, 2020.

Part of the NBS report read, “The finance and insurance sector consists of the two subsectors, financial institutions and insurance, which accounted for 87.92 per cent and 12.08 per cent of the sector respectively in real terms in Q2 2021.

The report said, “As a whole, the financial and insurance services sector grew at -1.86 per cent in nominal terms (year-on-year), with financial institutions growing at -3.93 per cent while insurance recorded a growth rate of 16.41 per cent.

“The overall rate was lower than that in Q2, 2020 by –22.68 per cent points, and by -4.01 per cent points than the preceding quarter. Quarter on quarter growth was -3.45 per cent.

“The sector’s contribution to the aggregate nominal GDP was 3.21 per cent in Q2, 2021, lower than the 3.76 per cent it represented a year earlier, and the contribution of 3.25 per cent it made in the preceding quarter.”

It stated that growth in this sector in real terms fell by 2.48 per cent, lower by 20.97 per cent points from the rate recorded in the second quarter of 2020 and 2.02 per cent points from the rate recorded in the preceding quarter.

For the first half of 2021, it added, growth in financial and insurance services stood at 1.47 per cent year on year, compared to 19.63 per cent year on year for 2020.

Quarter on quarter growth in real terms fell by 2.18 per cent.

The contribution of finance and insurance to real GDP totalled 3.72 per cent, lower than the four per cent recorded in the second quarter of 2020 by 0.29 per cent points, and the 3.77 per cent recorded in Q1 2021 by 0.05 per cent points, according to the NBS.