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By Elliot WILLIAMS The first ever Inter-Schools Insurance Debate came to a successful end last week with the final of the 2025 edition held at the Insurance House – the head office of the Ghana Insurers Association – in Accra. The final of the competition among tertiary institutions nationwide, saw Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology win the title after piping College of Education, Ada, by a score of 83.0 to 78.0. The motion for the final debate was “Insurance should be treated as a fundamental human right rather than a commercial product” The nationwide debate was organized by the Insurance Awareness Coordinators Group (IACG) in partnership with the National Insurance Commission, the Ghana Insurers Association and other key industry stakeholders. The initiative has been designed to promote insurance awareness among the youth, build trust in the insurance ecosystem, encourage critical thinking on national insurance issues and strengthen industry – academia partnerships. It is expected that the initiative will result in insurance clubs being set up in participating tertiary institutions. The process that culminated in last week’s final began with a nationwide reconnaissance mission across the two delineated zones: southern and northern, with visits to 20 tertiary institutions attracting strong interest in the initiative. Initial challenges such as vacation timing and logistics were successfully addressed early, through a collaborative approach by the debate organizers and the schools themselves. Consequently, zonal competitions were held on the 9th and 10th of October, with the Southern Zone hosted at Insurance House in Accra and the Northern Zone hosted at KNUST in Kumasi. There was fierce competition among the 16 schools that participated in the zonal competitions – eight from each zone – which addressed issues such as: “Should insurance be compulsory for all adults?”; and “Is insurance a protection or an infringement of freedom”? The Northern Zone produced KNUST, University of Development Studies, UNER and Kibi College of Education as semi-finalists. The Southern Zone produced Ada College of Education, University of Ghana Business School, University of Cape Coast and St Francis College of Education as semi-finalists. The semi- finals then produced KNUST and Ada College of Education as the finalists. Participants were conferred with awards and recognition in the form of trophies, certificates, souvenirs, cash prizes and plaques. The success of the 2025 edition has set the stage for further editions in subsequent years. The organizers say that plans are underway to expand the initiative, going forward, by including even more schools in subsequent editions.
