Insurance coverage reaches 22% of total population

KATHMANDU: Though the scope of insurance is increasing in the recent years, still 78 percent of the total population is beyond insurance coverage.

As per the first quarter report published by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) recently, insurance coverage has reached only 22 percent of the country’s population.

Insurance coverage till the first quarter of 2019-20 was recorded at 20.4 percent of the total population.

Insurance Board claimed that the entire insurance cycle was affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown imposed by the government to contain its spread. “Had there been no COVID-19 and lockdown, insurance coverage was expected to reach to at least 35 percent of the population,” informed Raju Raman Poudel, executive director of the board.

However, the board expects insurance coverage to reach to almost 40 percent of the population by the end of the current fiscal year.