THE Insurance Institute of Zimbabwe (IIZ) recently appointed Davison Choeni (DC) its general manager. His appointment comes as the institute is set to hold its annual conference in Victoria Falls next week. Our senior business reporter Melody Chikono (MC) spoke to Choeni about his vision for the institute. Below are the excerpts from the interview:
MC: Can you take us through your game plan for the institute?
DC: We have tended to concentrate more on our examinable courses and not much on the technical short courses, which we believe are paramount in building expertise and excitement on our industry practitioners. Feedback coming through seems to suggest that because of the absence of these technical short courses, we were slowly losing our relevance.
As such, a lot of other vendors have come into the space to provide such courses, which we feel we are better positioned to deliver because nature does not allow for a vacuum. We will, therefore, be moving to reposition and repacke ourselves so that we give our clients the whole menu. In that regard, we will be exploring possibilities of establishing a specialised resource dedicated to and managing the short courses. We are going to reclaim our position as providers of insurance education and professionals. We also want the institute to be visible and lead in the insurance knowledge and training space.
We will also be taking keen interest in innovation hubs established by universities through Education 5.0 as we believe they might be dividends to be harnessed from talents coming through from these spaces to assist the industry develop. The other area we want to work on is automation of our systems. We wish to see some of our examinations being written online and possible with one getting their certificate in real time if successful. Once positioned, we will also go for an aggressive regional expansion.
Currently, we are in Mozambique, Swaziland, Lesotho, Gaborone and Botswana. But they will be needed for refinement for sustainability of these locations. We will be developing a clear penetration strategy in these and other regional destinations. We believe there is scope and opportunities in the region. Finally, we believe in engagement with all our stakeholders and it’s an area we will be taking very seriously.
MC: What are some of the setbacks that you anticipate in your journey?
DC: I do not want to see them as setbacks but rather as challenges that need to be confronted. In terms of funding, we will obviously have to look beyond our traditional funding streams, which are membership subscriptions and examination fees but develop other financial avenues, such as partnering ourselves with different agencies that are into skills and manpower development.
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The other challenge would be on skills shortages due to brain drain. A lot of our seasoned insurance practitioners and experts have left the country. However, this could be a blessing as they are now exposed and the challenge would be on us to see how we could harness such talent to further the institute’s mandate and objectives.
MC: You are coming in at a time the institute is set to host its annual conference this November. Can you take us through what to expect at the conference?
DC: We are getting into exciting times and this conference could be a game changer if we look at the profile of our speakers and the topics. For beginners, we have invited and assembled some of the best and solid experts in their field as speakers both locally and regionally. The speakers are talking into deployment of technology and innovation. You will appreciate that the insurance industry is one that has lagged behind when it comes to technology driven solutions unlike other financial services.
The speakers will conscientise our players on the benefits of this to customer satisfaction. These will also demystify the thinking that insurance is sold and not bought.
As it has now been proven that technological driven insurance companies have become the fastest growing, we would also want a discussion to come out from this conference that speaks to the best way we could take advantage of the innovation hubs found in our universities.
Through this conference, we hope to then launch some exciting programmes that aim at celebrating our industry players. We would like for instance to have those that would have embraced innovation and technological solutions that aim at product development and customer satisfaction to be celebrated and awarded some prizes.
This will see the institute introducing some awards in the industry. In fact, we would be happy to have annual awards in the industry. The conference also presents an opportunity for practitioners to network and reflect on the future of both the institute and industry. We are positive the delegates will gain a lot from this conference.
MC: What motivated this year’s theme for the conference?
DC: As alluded to earlier on, the insurance industry’s uptake and appetite to deliver value using technology has been a bit on the lower end compared to other financial service providers. However, we have seen those that have deployed technology doing exceedingly wonderful and growing their business. We would want to see the whole industry drifting towards the same for its growth and prosperity. Remember, we are living in a digital age. The 4th Industrial revolution is with us. Hence, we therefore want to embed it in our industry. Technology adoption and innovation are key to the growth of the industry
MC: How are you moulding your professionals to overcome some of these challenges in Zimbabwe?
DC: We have recently introduced a new curriculum with more updated content, which should help professionals be more up to date with current global trends. Our qualifications have evolved over time where our students start from certificate level progress into associateship through our diploma and then do research that results in one attaining a fellowship status.
The fellowship is purely research-based progression. We have established a society of fellowship who is affiliated to the institute. It is our hope that we capacitate IIZ to be the centre of insurance knowledge. This would see those that have been admitted into the society assisting industry develop appropriate offering to the market. This could be a platform of developing solutions that will overcome challenges of low penetration and lack of confidence among others in the insurance market.
MC: The insurance sector is also facing confidence issues. What are you going to do to address this?
DC: Insurance is an instrument of economic development and with the government's vision of making Zimbabwe a middle-class economy by 2030. The future of the industry can only be bright. There is evidence on the ground if one looks at the economic activities going on in the country in line with the government’s national development strategy 1.
Positive things are also happening in the agriculture and tourism sectors. What we need to do is to reimagine and repackage our offering to the market taking advantage of these developments. We should remember that the insurance market has evolved; hence we need to be responding accordingly because what worked years ago might not work now. We need to be alive to that fact.
MC: There are a number of projects at the institute that have stalled due to funding challenges. What plans do you have to ensure the institute’s dreams are fulfilled?
DC: The major project we have is the Mount Pleasant property where we want to house our college of insurance. It is exciting to note that the board has appointed a committee to spearhead its construction. There are several funding options available but obviously we may not want to dive into that space at this point but be assured there is movement in this regard.
MC: What can you say have been the training milestones?
DC: For starters, we are offering our certification on four levels. On level one, we are offering four specialised insurance business qualifications. These include certificate of proficiency in short term business, certificate of proficiency in long (life) term insurance, certificate of proficiency in retirement fund trusteeship, certificate of proficiency in funeral business and by 2024 we will have certificate of proficiency for loss assessors.
On level two, we have diploma certification for both long- and short-term business. This equips students with high technical knowledge and skills. It is for those with an eye for management positions.
Then we level three, which is associateship. It is an advanced qualification that demonstrates advanced technical knowledge across many areas in insurance, broking, reinsurance, funeral and pension funds. It is for those that aspire to work at strategic levels.
Then we have level four, which is the fellowship. It is our premier and highest qualification. All these are accredited with the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development.
The major challenge has been the uptake of the higher qualifications from level 2 to 4. This could be attributable to three factors. Unlike the level one which is mandatory for one to practise insurance, these are more taken on voluntary bases by those practising insurance and want to enhance their insurance knowledge and skill. Absence of aggressive marketing of the qualifications and funding constraints on the part of potential students due to economic related instability and we believe conversations with manpower and skills developments agencies could assist in this regard.
MC: How will you work to rectify these challenges?
DC: Several strategies will be deployed to address the identified challenges. For instance, we will have to aggressively market these qualifications both within our constituencies and at universities, targeting those that are studying towards insurance and risk management related programmes.
We also need to look into funding options. We have agencies involved in manpower and skills development and we would want to explore and see if there could be scope for our graduates sponsored by their employers to get rebates on completion as we believe these are critical areas that need to be supported.
MC: What is your outlook in 2024 as an institute?
DC: For us 2024 will be more exciting in that, we would be introducing more exciting short courses for all levels of insurance personnel. There will be different courses for junior to senior executives in the industry. We will be bringing in experts across the globe to train our stakeholders. We will be establishing a platform where different levels of our stakeholders will be congregated and we invite speakers for talks and interactions.
That way we will not only motivate our people but we want them to remain engaged and interrogate developing trends within our Zimbabwean set up and beyond. C-suite breakfast sessions will be organised. We will also introduce some awards on our partners who would have excelled in different categories within the insurance industry. You will also see a reconfigured Insurance Institute of Zimbabwe that is more engaged, more visible and taking every stakeholder along.
