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By Henry Uche [email protected],
Following the low insurance penetration observed in Africa over the years, sector experts are not leaving any stone unturned to revamp, resuscitate and rev up the industry in other to boost global competitiveness.
Just recently, two insurance giants, Dr. Yeside Oyetayo, the pioneer rector, College of Insurance and Financial Management (CIFM) in Ogun State and the Chief Executive Officer, Institute Interafricain De Formation en Assurance et en Gestion des Enterprises, IFAGE (Senegal), Mrs. Rokhaya Kandji, opined that human capital development and a conscientious effort to bridge the gap between the academia and the professional practice, are two major ways insurance operators in the region could take their due position among the comity of nations.
To corroborate their positions, the CEO, College of Insurance (Nairobi), Dr. Ben Kajwang, during a webinar organized for African insurance operators argued that innovation and re-engineering are sine quo non for transforming the sector for the good of African economy.
Kajwang, who was the immediate past president of African Insurance Organization (AIO), at the forum, said the current state of affairs in the insurance industry needs urgent attention. For instance, taking insurance industry to the next level requires tackling shrinking premium and managing spike in customer attrition by all stakeholders.
The challenges, according to him, are legion but must be tackled head-on. They include but not limited to: The tasks of developing new curriculum, syllables and study modules for insurance students across the continent; the onerous tasks of retraining the trainers; investing in capacity building; projecting a clear vision; strong leadership; cross – functional collaboration; and change management.
“We must restructure across insurance value chain, look into miscalculated risks, dearth of investment in time and other resources, negligence to organizational change management.”
The insurance guru, who drew the attention of operators to risk management, however, expressed concern over the widening trust gap in an uncertain world, rapidly evolving customer needs and preferences, increasing digital and AI – driven world, climate risks and sustainability as well as convergence, collaboration and competition. For these to be met, all hands, he said, must be on deck.
“Five emerging risks to watch out for are: climate change, cyber risks, AI, IoT and robotization, financial instability and natural resource management. But we need to move away from the traditional products and services offering, like motor/property insurance, health insurance to customer – centric transformation, self – service for policyholders, customers insurance apps and customer portals, Omni Channels, customer experience, digitization of legacy process with insurtech, predictive insurance analytics”
Nonetheless, he stressed that IoT and telematics, insurance chat box, Applied AI and natural language processes (NLP), next level process automation and virtualization as well as climate impact and ESG responsibility are new areas of thinking. He urged players and operators alike to engage in digital ecosystem, build unique customer intelligence, design tailored products and services of a digital world, be mindful of disruptive distribution, re- engineer the value chain, and adopt a digital mindset.
“We must build outcome – oriented organization, build strong change management capabilities, establish a transformation management organization and adopt an agile delivery model. Every futuristic insurers must go on the digital tools and win the race for talents. The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination. Therefore, we must re- image our customers value, pick our spot and align capabilities, build a network of trusted partners, design our services for digital collaboration and align our operating model for more value creation”
He added, “We must elevate the understanding of ESG in our organization and make it actionable and transparent, make social responsibility a core ethos of our purpose. If we must make headway, we must redefine the future of work, harness the power of culture, upskill our Workforce for the new world, take advantage of the gig economy and rewrite our human resource playbook.
“We must remember that our future growth rely on competitiveness and innovation, skills and productivity. These in turn rely on the education of our people. This way, insurance can take a brighter shape for the insuring public” he submitted.
On her part, the CEO, Insurance Institute of South Africa, Thokozile Mahlangu, who spoke at the session said attention must urgently be given to the incessant drifts in Customer Service and its impact on service delivery.
According to her, the key to insurance growth is tangible customer experience which comes by understanding daily customers Practices (behavior) as well as by factoring customers in key decision making process.
Quoting an American entrepreneur and investor, David Cancel, Mahlangu said, “For you to stand out and for you to compete in this next century, you’re going to have to figure out how you stay closest to the customer, so you can continually evolve and build products that meet that customer’s needs in this world of infinite supply. Companies that fail to adapt, and that fail to listen to and communicate with their customers, will inevitably lose out”
She added “Customers research must be a top priority and strategy for us to soar in the troubled global competitive business environment. More so, the gap between us and our customers must be shortened to get quick feedback and learn about their feelings regarding our products and services” she charged.
