‘Insurance products should empower women’

WOMEN Affairs minister Sithembiso Nyoni has challenged women in the insurance sector to ensure that women entrepreneurs across all sectors including rural areas benefited from their products.

Speaking during a Women in Insurance Zimbabwe (WIZ) annual symposium in Harare yesterday, Nyoni said women in insurance should empower fellow women entrepreneurs across all sectors.

“I would like to challenge you to ensure that women entrepreneurs across all sectors and in rural areas are knowledgeable about insurance and also benefit from your products,” she said.

“This is an inclusive approach that will also ensure our entrepreneurs will not lose much in times of disaster. More than ever before, insurers need to deliver products that the customer genuinely values and there is a need for consumer awareness on this.”

Nyoni also pointed out that inclusive insurance that serves both the rich and poor and various segments of the market should be provided.

“Unfortunately, the advent of COVID-19 impoverished many societies with people losing jobs, and small businesses forced to shut down and families losing their breadwinners because of the pandemic.

“Women entrepreneurs have not been spared from this and have been impacted negatively, socially and economically. There has also been widening economic and social gaps which need to be addressed,” she said.

The insurance industry globally needed technological developments, digitalisation, use of data and analytics to make the insurance industry more efficient, Nyoni said.

While noting that there seems to be consensus among practitioners and researchers that technology and innovation will drive the future of insurance business, she said: “Though advances in technology, data and analytics have been reshaping the business models of insurance companies in recent years, COVID-19 has forced many insurers especially in Africa to leap from traditional to modern IT companies within a short time. The ability of insurers to thrive in the new normal would be hinged on their IT set-up.

“There should be a conversation on how the industry can engage in extensive market research to identify the changing consumer behaviour and needs. Research has revealed that consumer priorities are changing and by implication, their risks.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has changed people’s attitudes and priorities. Engaging the market and designing new products that add value would guarantee survival of the insurance industry.”

The minister said the pandemic significantly reduced the ability of insurance companies to meet the needs of low-income earners and the informal sectors especially in Africa, a development which highlighted the critical need of insurance as the provider of safety nets for societies.

“Therefore, our discussion around this issue should focus on how the insurance sector can militate against the reccurrence of the economic realities imposed by COVID-19 and how the industry can initiate institutional partnerships with relevant organisations to achieve its aim of providing the necessary cushioning to all in times of disasters,” she said.

Nyoni lamented that women dominate the workforce of the global insurance industry, but that is not reflected in the number of women in executive positions, though there has been a gradual improvement in the last decade.

“The problem of gender parity cannot be glossed over. We need to discuss this state of affairs and extensively empower women and change the narrative in order to attain gender equality,” she added, while urging women not play the gender card or use their gender responsibilities as an excuse for non-performance.

Nyoni further noted that inequalities and lack of representation among women in insurance was a great challenge, bearing in mind that women influence innovation and product development in insurance.

WIZ patron and the Insurance and Pensions Commission commissioner Grace Muradzikwa said there were very few products that were tailor-made for women despite them being in the majority.

“There are opportunities for us to focus on ourselves and develop relevant products thereby creating blue oceans for ourselves,” she said.

The conference, which ends today, is running under the theme: Uniting for an empowered African continent.-newsday