Chairman of the Bahamas Insurance Association (BIA) Emmanuel Komolafe is calling for a disaster risk plan.

Speaking with our news team yesterday Komolafe said he believes it is time for a serious conversation on the development of a robust and holistic national disaster risk plan that addresses several factors including  the financing of rebuilding ‎efforts after a natural disaster,  the ongoing review and updating of the building code,  and affordability of private insurance by reduction or elimination of taxes on insurance premiums.

“The BIA is in preliminary discussions with multilateral and regulatory agencies on the introduction of micro insurance to increase insurance penetration and serve the low income as well as small and medium sized enterprises in The Bahamas,” Komolafe said.

He added that in the event that only the elimination of VAT on insurance or a reduction of the business license tax on insurance is implemented, consideration should be given to segregating all taxes on general insurance ‎and earmarking them to go into a national disaster recovery fund which is professionally managed.

“The CCRIF policy should be augmented with private insurance of some public infrastructure to further protect public assets,” Komolafe said.

He added that while the damage from hurricane Irma was substantial, insurance penetration is low in the southern Bahamas when compared to the islands of New Providence, Grand Bahama and Abaco.

“Hence, the impact of hurricane Irma on the industry (in terms of incurred losses) is expected to be significantly less when compared to hurricane Matthew,” Komolafe said.

He added that the BIA is in the process of collecting and collating data from their member companies to thoroughly assess the impact of Hurricane Irma.

“Once this process is completed, we will be in a better position to quantify the impact of the hurricane on the insurance industry and provide the necessary details,” Komolafe said.

He added that it must also be acknowledged that we have seen progressive improvements in the government’s response ‎to hurricanes over the last three hurricane seasons.