Botswana Life launches new products
Pauline Dikuelo | Thursday July 14, 2016 11:08
Speaking at the launch on Tuesday, Botswana Life chief executive officer (CEO), Bilkiss Moorad said they have decided to launch these new products as it is important for them as an insurance company to retain their position in the market while ensuring that they drive continuous innovation to cater for their clientele.
“We need to regularly introspect to ensure we are using our size, wealth of experience and strength to continually refine and redefine our customer value proposition,” she said.
In addition, Moorad said their customer value proposition includes a value add, relevance, convenience, accessibility and pro-activeness noting that the benefits of getting these right are significant as their risk and wealth creation needs will be met.
Further, the CEO said as the industry has undergone a transformation where customer needs are now more complex as customers are discerning and sophisticated.
“They are highly informed, financially literate and have significantly more options for procuring insurance services and have expectations of services and products they want to receive from us,” she said. She added that they have broken ground with their Poelo Term Assurance noting that this is the first life insurance product available in the market, which is offered in two versions either with a return premium of 15 years or alternatively no return premiums.
Poelo Term Assurance offers a client 15 years minimum term period after which one gets all their life cover premiums back plus 20% extra.
It can be used as collateral to a bank loan, which can cover one up to P1 million loan without medical cover.
Unlike most policies, the Isago Investment Plan does not have front loaded charges, which enables clients to invest in the early days of the policy for a minimum of 10 to a maximum of 15 years. Tapologo Retirement Plan, which targets pensioners, enables policyholders to take one third of the maturity value to settle immediate debts after retirement.
According to Botswana Life head of individual life, Moletlanyi Tshosa they did pilot the products in the market for the past two weeks and the response has been overwhelming, as about 90% of the people they approached have signed up.
Botswana Life, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last year, is one of the oldest insurance companies in the country with over 72% market share. The company is currently managing a file size of almost 300,000 policies and an annual recurring premium of P1 billion. It currently has over 7,000 people receiving their monthly pensions.