The Indonesian Shariah Insurance Association (AASI) has launched its Shariah Life Insurance Blueprint, which is a strategic planning document to advance the family takaful market as one of the pillars of the nation’s economy.
The 120-page blueprint has three important pillars, namely: Communicating Islamic life insurance values and building trust; improving and developing ways of working; and enabling innovation in areas like products, business and distribution.
AASI chairman Tatang Nurhidayat, said, “It is hoped that the blueprint will be able to provide input, and enlightenment to every industry, readers, regulators, including investors regarding the development and growth direction of Shariah insurance in the future. Of course, it is expected to improve the Islamic economy and the nation and state of Indonesia.”
Mr Tatang also said that since takaful was introduced in Indonesia in 1994 with the establishment of Islamic life insurance, the sector has encountered many challenges related to literacy, education, distribution channels, the lack of variety of services and products, technology, and policies or regulations that still need to be strengthened.
Despite Indonesia having the largest Muslim population in the world, many Muslims in the country still choose conventional life insurance (26%) over shariah life insurance (12%), while 61% of other Muslims say they do not have insurance.
Mr Yoga Prasetyo, a member of the taskforce for the Shariah Life Insurance Blueprint, said, “With reference to this framework, we have developed a series of initiatives to become an end-to-end solution and create a good and conducive ecosystem for shariah life insurance.” The implementation timeframe for the blueprint spans 2022 to 2028. M