- Key recommendations for growth, awareness and collaboration for support of Takaful in Pakistan
It was a dire need of Muslims to have Islamic Insurance as alternate for existing un-Islamic Insurance. The long awaited dream has now come true and we have Takaful based on Islamic principles existing all over the world.
It is worth mentioning that Takaful is gaining momentum, particularly in the countries where Muslim population is at large. There is a bright future for Takaful to grow fast in the world because Islam is the second largest religion in the world with around 1.8 billion followers. The religion of Muslims is the plus point for Takaful to penetrate in the Islamic countries with speed.
Another positive point is that the majority of Muslims population is youth with 60%. They have potential to become a driving force to take the takaful on the horizon provided the youth are captured in early.
In Pakistan, the growth of Takaful is very slow but figures are very encouraging as compared to conventional premiums. The comparative figures of six years presented below speaks its self that Takaful share of total premiums is increasing gradually.
All this is because of sincere efforts to strengthen Takaful against conventional insurance. But in spite of this significant growth, there are still lots of things to do for Takaful to become the backbone for feeding line of trade and industry as well as welfare for human kinds. In order to achieve these targets, we will have to take revolutionary steps to support Takaful industry fully.
Given below is a list of suggestions with the hope that the concerned people would take them into consideration for the growth of Takaful in Pakistan:
– To set up a committee comprising representatives of Takaful Operators under the banner of IAP aiming to sit together and resolve common issues being faced by the Takaful industry.
– To bring uniformity throughout the Takaful industry with a view to remove differences in process and Shariah decisions.
– To promote good business practices to strengthen the confidence of people about Takaful so that they may prefer Takaful to conventional insurance.
– To launch a big campaign at national level for creating Takaful awareness which is necessary to reach at the doors of those people who keep themselves away from conventional insurance because of religious belief.
– To avail the network of masjid to educate people about Takaful in collaboration with Shariah Scholars particularly those who are already rendering services for Takaful.
– To build partnership with Islamic banks for Banca Takaful in order to sell Takaful products to Banks’ clients.
– To organize seminars and conferences in collaboration with Islamic banks and institutions for the sake of propagation not only for Islamic finance but also Takaful in society.
– To arrange writing competitions for young writers and students to explore new avenues leading – Takaful to grow fast in Pakistan.
– To encourage professionals engaged in Takaful to write articles on Takaful to be published in magazines and newspapers regularly.
– To organize training workshops in big cities to impart education and training to working employees of this profession as well as fresh entrants.
– To design a comprehensive syllabus on Takaful for colleges and universities to include in their academic curriculum so that these institutes can produce skilled professionals equipped with Takaful knowledge.
– To induct new blood into the Takaful industry who have technical knowledge of Takaful as well as Shariah Principles.
– To develop innovative products and services based on Shariah principles to attract more customers with the new products of Takaful.
– To distribute a part of surplus amount amongst the participants as per the surplus distribution policy to create a conducive environment for Takaful to retain not only the existing business of participants but also generate new Takaful business.
– To seek support from the government to provide some relief to Takaful Operators in taxation policy with a view to boost up the newly takaful industry in Pakistan.
– To pay special attention on media both print and electronic for enhancement of public awareness on takaful.
– To form a social media group to interact with people for the purpose of promoting and selling services necessary for the growth of Takaful business.
– To make use of media particularly TV channels to give public awareness by arranging questions and answers sessions on how Takaful is different from conventional insurance.
– To extend full support and cooperation to each other for the placement of their facultative business on reciprocal basis as and when needed.
– To arrange meetings with people who have a background in Takaful and/or other markets to focus on developing solutions to outstanding issues as their combined expertise can help Takaful industry lead towards speedy growth.
– To make collective efforts to get obstacles removed such as “per party risk limits” imposed by banks so that Shariah based Takaful would flourish in the country without any hurdles from other entities.
In the last I would say that all this is possible provided we realize the importance of “united we stand and divided we fall.”