BOMaid boss urges society to innovate

CHAKALISA DUBE
Staff Writer | Monday March 25, 2013 00:00

 

Bogatsu maintained that sustaining the organisation solely through monthly premiums paid by members is not viable. In light of this, he stressed that there is greater need for the BOMAid leadership to continue  to find other ways of to help them sustain it.

He said: 'In fact, for the past few years the society has experienced some operating deficit as a result of the unstable economy around the world.' Bogatsu said to reduce operating expenses, BOMAid would have had to increase its member's monthly premiums. This solution would have weighed heavily on members whose salaries have not been increased for several years.

He believes that increased operating expenses are a call for BOMAid to come up with creative and innovative ways to manage operating costs in the long term. 'We have to guard ourselves against competitors by being innovative. If we do not become innovative, they will encroach into ours space and we will close.

'The acquisition of a 97 percent stake of the Medical Rescue International Botswana (MRIB) from CEDA Venture Capital Fund Limited, as well as establishing South View as a subsidiary of BOMAid to administer society's funds is testimony that the society wants to seek other ways of sustaining itself without having to rely on premiums from its membership,' he said. He continued: 'The MRIB acquisition of the shares also symbolises the society's ambition to continue coming up with ways that could help improve the products and services it offers to its members,' he noted.  

In her welcome remarks, deputy city mayor Joyce Ndove also encouraged the society to model itself such that it will be able to both offer high standard services to its clientele, and sustain itself. BOMaid is a not-for-profit society established in 1969 by a consortium which drew its initial membership from audit firms, parastatals and banking organisations in Botswana.

The society is a member-based medical aid scheme, self-administered through a democratically elected Board of Management drawn from its constituent member companies. BOMaid is also a member of the Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF), a representative body for medical aid schemes within Southern Africa.