INSURANCE COMPANIES

The study empirically examined the contribution ofinsurance companies to the growth ofsmall and medium scale enterprises in Nigeria for the period 1986 to 2022. The specific objectives were to find out whether insurance premium (INPR), insurance investment rate (INVR),insurance penetration (INPEN) and insurance assets (INASS) significantly impact small and medium scale enterprise growth in Nigeria. The Unit root test and the ordinary least square (OLS) econometric technique were used in the analysis and the results specifically indicate that insurance premium (INPR) has a strong positive impact on SME growth; insurance investment rate (INVR) has significant negative impact on SMEs growth; while insurance penetration (INPEN) and insurance assets (INASS) do not have any significant impact on small and medium scale enterprise growth in Nigeria. The study conclude that insurance premium and insurance investment rate are the main factors affecting SMEs growth in Nigeria within the period of investigation. The study therefore recommends among others that, governments should develop and implement coherent insurance friendly policies that will enable SMEs to compete and survive on a commercial footing. It should avoid pursuing policies and enacting laws and regulations that would create disincentives to SMEs growth. Also, management should re-strategize on how to expand current insurance firms’ coverage areas in the country by developing more clients-orientedproducts that would attract more Nigerian who hitherto never purchase insurance policy. This will go a long way to ensure that insurance penetration significantly affect SMEs growth in Nigeria.