06 Sep 2015

The domestic insurance sector has been encouraged to inform itself about the property and engineering industries in order to create a specialist engineering insurance field and expand the business portfolio of its respective companies.

In an interview on the sidelines of the Property and Engineering Insurance Seminar held at Lansmore, Masa Square, Gaborone recently, Mr Cassim Hansa, the Johannesburg-based managing director of Continental Property and Engineering Risk Services (CPERS) said it was important for local insurance stakeholders to train well equipped cadres capable of engaging property and engineering sectors. 

“As Botswana continues to develop, large scale projects take place to expand physical infrastructure, industrial development, energy projects and with this there is a need for a specialist field of engineering insurance to be nurtured,” Mr Hansa said. He said in order to improve the skills competency and the capacity of the domestic insurance industry personnel, they had held the two day seminar hoping to ignite the process of developing engineering insurance.

“We aim to prepare the local insurance industry to better handle complex challenges and entrench understanding of greater business opportunities that exist,” Mr Hansa said. 

“The insurance industry should not only be looking at traditional sources of business, but should look at bigger products and services.” He said significant gains could be made if the insurance sector human resource base acquires relevant expertise about property and engineering. 

Mr Hansa gave the example of the Medupe Power Station, the dry-cooled coal-fired station being built by South African energy giant Eskom near Lephalale in Limpopo, South Africa, saying the insurance industry had been involved from the beginning of the process, saying Botswana sector should likewise look at being part of large scale energy projects from their start.

“It is important to be involved from the construction stage, so that you do not come in just to insure the power station or dam once it is complete, up and running,” Mr Hansa said.

He further urged local insurance industry to be innovative by seeking to develop products and services that are relevant to the domestic market. The Gaborone seminar was part of a continent-wide property and engineering insurance training, equipping the African insurance industry, including brokers, risk managers and others involved in the insurance supply chain. 

Similar seminars have been held in Lagos (Nigeria), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Lusaka, (Zambia) and Harare, (Zimbabwe). Continental Reinsurance, a Pan-African company led the seminar through its specialist subsidiary CPERS with the training targeted primarily at managers and underwriters. Ends