Kathmandu. Female agents working in the life insurance sector of Nepal have limited opportunities for training compared to male agents for skill building. According to the recently published report of the Nepal Insurance Authority (NEA) TAG_OPEN_em_10 titled “Insurance through a Gender Lens: A Fema Meter Assessment in Nepal, the access to training among salaried employees working for insurance companies is the same, but in the case of agents, there is a gender disparity.
According to the report, 84 per cent of salaried employees in life insurance companies are women and 82 per cent are men. However, when it comes to licensed agents, 46 per cent of male agents are trained, while the number of female agents is limited to 31 per cent. Of the undisclosed agents, 33 per cent have been trained, while the average training rate for life insurance agents as a whole is 39 per cent.
In the case of short life insurance, women agents are ahead of men. Here 38 percent of female agents and 36 percent of male agents are trained.
In micro non-life insurance, 50 per cent of male salaried employees have been trained, while the number of female employees is 37 per cent. Similarly, 37 per cent of male employees and 32 per cent of women have received training in agents.
In the non-life insurance sector, the access to training of agents is very low. Only 8 percent of female agents and 6 percent of male agents have been trained in this field.
The Insurance Authority of Nepal (BEE) has stressed on the need for regular monitoring and encouragement of training to provide equal opportunities for professional development to women agents. In addition, the Authority has suggested that adequate resources should be allocated for their capacity building.
