Consumers’ Attitude toward Islamic Insurance Services (Takaful) Patronage in Kano Metropolis, Nigeria

Abstract

Islamic Insurance (Takaful) is the insurance practice that is established based on ethical faith to provide a risk management product for consumers whose belief has discouraged them to patronize the conventional insurance services.Takaful products are developed to be free from 3 in-built principles (interest, uncertainty and gambling element) that have disqualified any financial transaction to be Sharia compliant. Thus, the paper is aimed at examining the factors that influence the consumers' attitude toward Takaful services patronage in Kano Metropolis, Nigeria. To this end, the study examines the extent to which consumers' awareness, perception of Takaful services and the trust and confidence they reposed on Takaful Operators have significant relationship with their attitude towards Takaful services patronage. A structured questionnaire was the only instrument used in collecting the data. Although, the population of the study is indefinite, 384 subjects are administered with the questionnaires using judgmental sampling technique and the employment status of the respondents was the basis for the selection and inclusion of the respondents in the study. The data was analyzed using multiple-regression with SSPS version 17. The paper found that awareness, perception, trust and confidence are significantly related to the consumers' attitude toward Takaful services patronage. It was, therefore, recommended that an attitudinal change campaign is required and rigorous marketing campaign should be embarked upon to create awareness of Takaful service and its Operators. Hence, trust and confidence of people should be won and built in favor of Takaful services.