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Saturday 25 May 2013

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Strength & Security

BLIL is the leading life insurer in Botswana with a market share estimated at over 80%.

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Botswana Life Insurance

Oldest & Largest Life Insurance Company in Botswana

  • Botswana Life Insurance Limited (BLIL) is the oldest and the largest Life Insurance Company in Botswana with a market share estimated at over 80%.
  • It underwrites all classes of Life insurance product offerings.
  • Established in 1975, BLIL is wholly owned Botswana Insurance Holding Limited (Limited).
  • BIHL is a member of the Sanlam Group Limited, an international company with its main base in South Africa.

 

Mission

We offer quality client-centric financial solutions and services to grow and protect the wealth of all our stakeholders.

 

Vision

To be the personalised solutions provider of choice

 

It was established in 1975 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Botswana Insurance Holdings Limited (BIHL). BIHL is listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange and is a member of the Sanlam Group Limited with a 54% shareholding and the remaining 46% of BIHL equity is in the hands of Batswana and institutional investors.

 

In recognition of its market leadership position, BLIL has made concerted efforts to ensure that it is aware of the changes taking place within the industry and beyond, establishing factors that may impact on the company and/ or the industry as a whole such that it is ahead of the game and able to respond accordingly.

 

HISTORY

When the company was founded in 1975, it was a 51 percent subsidiary of the Botswana Development Corporation. At inception the company was known as Botswana Insurance Company (BIC). It transacted in all classes of general insurance and long term insurance, also underwriting deposit administration schemes as well as managing investments of Life and Pension Funds.

 

With effect from 1 January 1991 BIC restructured its activities in order to comply with the Insurance Industry Act of 1987. In terms of the restructure the assets and liabilities of the general insurance business of BIC were transferred to Botswana General Insurance Limited (BGIL), the business of which was the underwriting of all classes of general insurance. BIC was converted from a private to a public company and its name was changed to Botswana Life Insurance Limited (BLIL), and its business was solely underwriting life insurance and deposit administration and other administered pension schemes.

 

The entire issued share capital of BGIL and BLIL were transferred to Botswana Insurance Holdings Limited (BIHL). There were further changes in the group in 1994, where the general insurance business, BGIL was sold out of the BIHL group. BIHL was listed on the Botswana Share Market (now the Botswana Stock Exchange) on the 9 August 1991.

 

Current Situation

Within the past Five (5) years two (2) robust strategies have been introduced; the 2005 - 2008 Tsoseletso and the recently launched 2009 -2013. The latter is a robust five year strategy that has influenced the operationalisation of BIHL. The 2009 -2013 strategy’s over-riding intention of continuing the evolution of becoming a customer-centric and broad-based financial services organization.

 

The company is in the process of implementing an IT structure that will improve internal efficiencies with the ultimate result of better client service delivery.In the past few years Botswana Life has consistently posted good results even with the recent challenges brought about by the economic recession. The company administers more than 251 000 policies and underwrites over P680m in recurring premium income (Financial Year 2009). We are confident that the company will continue to grow and improve on those results.

 

Botswana life believes that one of its most prized possessions is its staff. As such we are continually upgrading our staff by sending them on courses that enhance the qualifications they have and the roles they play within the organization. We have a dedicated learning and development section within the Human resources department that is responsible for ensuring that members of staff are assisted to continually improve themselves.

 

 

Products and Services

BLIL provides a wide choice of insurance products for individuals and corporates’ various and changing needs. These offerings are tailor to suit the insured. The products are broadly classified to cover major life events such as death, accidents sickness, and retirement or cater for long-term savings. In-house actuarial capacity is utilized to monitor, review, modify and adapt the different offerings such as Life Cover, Funeral Schemes, Credit Life, Retirement Annuities and many more, some of which are specifically aligned with the country’s Vision 2016. Service delivery is of utmost importance hence the constant refining of service delivery systems/ technology and the growth of the company’s distribution channels.

 

 

Customer centricity and product innovation

The business has continued to achieve very good results in the face of a financial crisis. It has succeeded in maintaining its dominant position as a market leader for both individual and corporate businesses. The net insurance premium income stands at an impressive P1.3 billion at 31 December 2009.

 

The good results are largely attributable to our client centric approach, in particular listening and responding to our client needs.

 

Corporate Social Investment

Corporate Social Responsibility at BIHL subsidiary level is influenced by the Group policy which promotes worthy causes such as community projects that ALLEVIATE POVERTY and suffering in local communities. BLIL proactively promotes community growth and developments that empower people and protect environment. Since BLIL contributes to the one percent (1%) of post-tax profit to the BIHL Trust fund which provides it with a source of income for the aforementioned community activities on a sustainable basis, by implication the subsidiary, through the board of Trustees, contributes to how the fund benefits the community.

 

Relationships with Distribution Channels

We continue to expand our distribution capabilities through strong broker relationships, dedicated sales agents and our collaboration with our banking partners. Additional focus was applied to the relationship with the Post Office for further distribution of retail products and this resulted in impressive growth in new business volumes. Going forward, this distribution channel will become more relevant for people at the entry level and more products will be distributed through it.

 

Diversification

We experienced very rapid growth of the bancassurance business that we have launched in partnership with several financial institutions (Barclays Bank and Standard Chartered). The partnerships have created an exciting opportunity for bank customers to access insurance products thereby addressing their need for protection and investment solutions.

 

Major plans going forward

  • Investment in technology

The business is in the process of investing in technology with the view of making customer experience a pleasurable one and bringing about process efficiencies.

 

  • Growth into a wider financial services provider

BLIL in conjunction with BIHL has a vision of being a wider financial services provider. The additional businesses to the group, in addition to the existing Life Insurance and Asset Management businesses will be Short term insurance, Unit Trusts and the introduction of Micro loans with our partners.

 

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