To Improve Sharia Insurance Literacy, IPB University’s Department of Sharia Economics Holds General Lecture
Insurance is now one of the choices of the community to guarantee their lives. Sharia insurance is now also starting to experience an increasing trend. In order to increase sharia insurance literacy, the Department of Sharia Economics (Eksyar), Faculty of Economics and Management of IPB University held a General Lecture with the theme ‘Increasing Insurance Penetration in Conformist and Universalist Segments’. This activity was intended for students of the Department of Eksyar IPB University, (10/3).
Dr Irfan Syauqi Beik, Lecturer of the Department of Sharia Economics, Faculty of Economics and Management of IPB University explained that the portrait of the sharia insurance industry in Indonesia still experiences many challenges, especially related to insurance literacy. On the other hand, he continued, based on data published by the Indonesian Sharia Insurance Association, the development of sharia insurance has an indication of an increase every year. Although the beginning of the pandemic in 2019 to 2020 had experienced a decline in assets, after that the trend gradually increased.
According to him, the composition of sharia insurance assets is currently dominated by life insurance, worth 78 percent. Compared to the existing potential, this value is still very small.
“The value of contributions and gross claims based on annual growth also shows the same trend after the pandemic. The value shows an increase when people start utilizing insurance services and facilities, especially health insurance,” he explained.
“So indeed on this side, the growth and contribution of sharia insurance shows an indication of an increase, although in 2022 compared to 2021 it fell slightly by 6.65 percent,” he continued.
He added that the growth of asset value and annual investment returns also showed the same pattern after the pandemic.
The composition of the largest investment fund placement throughout 2022, he explained, in the sharia insurance industry was sharia stocks followed by state sharia securities. Meanwhile, up to 80 percent of the composition of sharia investment is dominated by capital market instruments.
“The existence of sharia insurance has helped encourage the development of the sharia capital market. I see three major challenges for the sharia insurance industry in the future, the first is strengthening literacy (sharia insurance),” he said.
According to him, sharia insurance literacy is a common homework to understand the public regarding sharia insurance. Moreover, the sharia investment case was crowded to the DPR.
“People need to be given knowledge to avoid misunderstanding the concept of sharia investment and its investment risks,” said Dr Irfan. According to him, Indonesia must be able to prepare tools that can strengthen the literacy of future generations regarding the definition, essence and concept of sharia insurance.
Second, he continued, maintaining the relevance of sharia insurance products to the needs of the community. Sharia insurance product innovations continue to be developed with the best service quality and competitive costs.
“Third, insurance is not considered as a primary or basic need. This is a challenge for the sharia insurance industry to encourage people to realize that insurance is not a tertiary need, but a basic need that must be met,” he concluded.
Other speakers on the occasion were Agus Haryadi, Lecturer of National Sharia Council – Indonesian Ulema Council (DSN-MUI), Sanya Yogatama Assistant Vice President of PT Asuransi Takaful, Dr Taufik Hidayat Director of Sharia Financial Services KNEKS, and Dewi Wahyuni, Customer of Sharia Life Insurance. (MW/Zul) (IAAS/RUM)
