- Insurance agency to be a one-stop service for loans and insurance cover under one roof
- NBD says its investments in risky spaces need protection
Aiming to offer insurance product solutions that will cushion customers against various risks while diversifying its income streams, the National Development Bank (NDB) has launched an insurance subsidiary named NDB Insurance Agency.
Products of NDB Insurance Agency will be offered through established industry players, Botswana Life and Botswana Insurance Company. Launching the agency in Gaborone earlier this week, the outgoing CEO of NDB Lorato Morapedi said NDB Insurance Agency fits in the bank’s desire to feed its customers with convenience in the form of a one-stop service centre encompassing loan application and insurance cover.
“In this way, they are saved the headache of having to deal with multiple service providers and can find comfort in the knowledge that their investment is housed under our reputable bank,” Morapedi said. “This is particularly important in today’s fast-paced world characterised by competing priorities, hence the need to optimise on the time available for the customer and us as service providers. We are confident that this move will result in important savings for (both) the customer and for the bank.”
She noted that the insurance agency is being launched at a time when NBD is nearing the end of its 2019-2022 Letsema Strategy and transitioning to the new Letsema le Tsweletse 2022-2025 Strategy. The bank will therefore continue to place a premium on partnerships, recognising their importance as a way of leveraging on different strengths to add value to customers.
“I am happy to inform you that the insurance agency products will be offered through our partnership with Botswana Insurance Holdings Limited (BIHL) subsidiary companies, Botswana Life and Botswana Insurance Company (BIC),” Morapedi said. She added that the government has been clear about the need for different public entities to partner with the private sector for efficient and profitable returns to the parties involved while increasing customer value.
‘NDB and BIHL have taken heed of this call to join hands on this journey which will surely add a significant value to their customers,” she said. Also speaking at the launch, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Peggy Serame, lauded the partnership between NDB and BIHL as a clear demonstration of how the private sector can work together with public institutions.
Serame revealed that between 2008 and 2018, the bank invested P1.7 billion in different agricultural sub-sectors made up of P889 million in arable farming, P730 million in livestock production, P51 million in horticulture and P10 million in poultry. These investments were geared at improving commercialisation of the sectors and to enhance sustainable food production. But this is a level of investment requires instruments of risk mitigation that NDB and BIHL have forged through their partnership, Minister Serame pointed out.
The move is also a response to the need for NDB to protect its customer’s investments in risky spaces. This particularly the case with start-ups where research has shown that 90 percent of the businesses hardly survive the first three years, and in agriculture where the climate and the weather conditions can add the already risky nature of the sector in Botswana.
