13 Jun 2022

ABSA bank recently held a first-ever insurance sector colloquium aimed at  reshaping the segment through accelerated digitalization. In an interview on the sidelines of a forum in Gaborone recently,  ABSA bank acting corporate director Ms Tebogo Giddie said the event was necessitated by lessons learned from COVID-19 pandemic, and some of the perceptions ABSA received from customer feedback on insurance and convenience.

She stated that another reason was the idea of how insurance continued to be forthright and top of mind because COVID-19 had taught them risks that ordinarily they did not have to deal with. Equally, she said, an increase in claims and many cancellations of policies propelled them to review how they could work with insurance companies to bring technology to the fore and satisfactorily aid the customer.

She said from a research point of view, what they learned was that the crisis sparked by the pandemic was not peculiar to Botswana, but was prevalent in the international markets as well. “What we are learning today is that the international market has fast-tracked their digitalization agenda to ensure that they continued to be competitive in an environment where products and services alone are no longer competitive,” she said.

Notably, she said the aspect of how one could access the products and services remained paramount hence digital transformation was key throughout the day's discussions. Ms Giddie said they had several partnerships with insurance companies, and thus continued to look for many other ways for collaboration and make sure they sustained value for clients. This, she said meant that a customer to the insurer was also a client to the bank fraternity.

Overall, the partnerships that ABSA bank had were limited to aspects such as pure products either from an insurance or banking perspective. 

Therefore, she said they were working towards bolstering channels that would enable the infrastructures within banking to support the insurance sector.

Ms Giddie said they strived to forge ties with key enablers of the industry, hence their efforts to necessitate discussions with the regulator – NBFIRA.

She indicated that discussions gave a view of how the African continent was taking the plight so far, and continuing to build strong and sustainable partnerships to diversify the income and continue to find new ways of building innovative revenue streams.  ENDS