Only 25 staffers are regulating 77 insurance companies, while the central bank has around 7,000 employees to control 56 banks in Bangladesh, the insurance regulator said yesterday.

“Why is it taking so much time to approve our new organogram?” said M Shefaque Ahmed, chairman of Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority.

“I don't know how to convince the government that our office is hugely understaffed and it hampers our everyday work.”

Ahmed's comments came at a press conference ahead of the first-ever insurance fair in the country, to be held from March 23-25.

The government enacted the Insurance Act and the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority Act in 2010 to replace the age-old laws that were used to regulate the country's insurance sector.

Soon after the enactment of new laws, the IDRA proposed a new organogram with 195 employees. Though the government cut the number to 155, it is yet to give it the go-ahead.

“The industry is suffering a lot. The government could have earned more revenues from the sector,” Ahmed added.

Shafiul Islam, a joint secretary of the finance ministry who looks after the insurance sector, also said the delay in approving the new organogram is unexpected.

The government procedures are complex and they take time, he said.

Quddus Khan, a member of IDRA, briefed the media about the upcoming insurance fair at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka.

A total of 50 companies will take part in the fair to attract people with their new and innovative products.

Also, there will be two seminars to educate people on life and non-life insurance policies and products.

“None can think of their lives without insurance in developed countries. But the perception of insurance is negative in Bangladesh,” Khan said.

Less than 1 percent of the population have insurance coverage. In neighbouring India, it is 5 percent and in the Philippines 7 percent, he said.

The fair will create awareness and play down the negative idea of insurance, he said, adding that the insurance companies will settle claims against policies at the fair as part of a confidence-building measure.

Farzana Chowdhury, managing director of Green Delta Insurance, said the fair will go some way in changing people's perception of insurance.

IDRA members Zuber Ahmed Khan and Sultan-Ul-Abedine Molla also spoke on the occasion.