- Insurer leads symposium on industry response to crises
Although insurance companies were able to absorb shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic, Botswana Insurance Company (BIC) gathered stakeholders to discuss issues and elaborate on strategies for cushioning the industry, should it face similar challenges in the future.
Speaking to The Business Weekly and Review at their Inaugural Thought Leadership Insurance Conference 2023, the CEO of BIC, Newton Jazire, said the level of financial literacy in Botswana is very low. The conference, he added, is a way of extending knowledge to stakeholders and consumers and finding ways of dealing with crises when they erupt.
Jazire noted that issues in the industry include the ability and capacity to handle conflict and threats to public health, hence the discourse on how to survive in the face of such issues while fulfilling customer needs. He asserted that like most insurance institutions, BIC was able to absorb shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic and to fast track their insurer’s digitalisation process. “COVID-19 pushed us to do (things) much faster than we were doing before,” he said. “Remote working, where employees served our valued customers from home, also enabled us to quickly get into investing in technology and becoming up to-date in that regard.”
Jazire stated it was time the industry had meaningful conversations around things that affect it. He noted that competition is necessary because it leads to better products and improved service delivery, hence the need to bring all players together to share experiences and realisations with one another. The General Manager of Sunshine Insurance, Vijay Mamidwar, lauded BIC for “this good initiative” that is enabling the industry to collectively look at issues from a leadership angle.
