Ghana Insurance Sector: An Overview of Hollard Life Assurance by Nashiru Iddrisu

Interview with Nashiru Iddrisu, Managing Director of Hollard Life Assurance

What is your assessment of the insurance sector?

Insurance is a very competitive industry. There are close to 55 underwriters, with about 20 in life and over 30 in general; all of these together with a brokerage market of almost 80 and still counting. We have three or four reinsurance companies and reinsurance brokers as well. It is a well regulated industry. The National Insurance Commission regulates all these players in the market. The reason why it is so competitive is the fact that first, the potential is huge, but the cake is small. There is a lot of concentration and we need to be able to deconcentrate the competition. We can only do that when we make the cake bigger which we can do through educating the public. Between life and general, we insure only 2% of the insurable public. With the opportunities that the industry offers, we should be able to do more. We also need to introduce more flexible, affordable, innovative products to the market. It appears that most of the products in the markets are quite rigid and a bit traditional. Thanks to COVID, there is a new paradigm. You have to go digital. We pride ourselves as being one of the pioneers of the digital space because we were the first to introduce an AI tool where you can buy insurance on WhatsApp. We launched that last year and we have a number of companies following suit. So, we need to do more innovation to open up the market. We need to do more education to open up the market. We need to have more affordability. Again, we have taken the lead in that space. We are in partnership with a FinTech based in Zimbabwe called Cassava and together with mobile operator Vodafone in Ghana, we have come out with a digital product to serve the underserved, the mass market, called MeBanbɔ. This was recently launched and is already making waves. We are also geared towards increasing penetration levels, especially to the underserved. If you take the life insurance industry, for instance, traditional life insurance products would require first and foremost for you to come on board in insurance. But first, you need to have a bank account. But a lot of people do not have bank accounts and that means that you are cutting them off and they cannot do insurance. If you do not have regular income, you cannot buy insurance, traditionally either. But now, with these digital products and micro insurance products, with as little as one Ghana cedi you can buy insurance. You do not need to have a bank account. All you need to have is a mobile account and a mobile number. You can insure your life, you can insure your family, you can insure your dependents. So, you are able to protect from the unforeseen contingencies that may hit you or hit any of your family.

What is your competitive advantage? How do you distinguish yourself from the competition?

First is our unconventional way of doing things, which is known in the industry and known in the Ghanaian market. Hollard would do anything that you would not think an insurance company would do. We are seen as very unconventional and very innovative by way of practice, by way of our products, and our services. This actually can be validated even by our own competitors. For instance, we have insurance services on WhatsApp. Nobody has done that before. We are the first to do that. For as little as one Ghana cedi, you can get insurance with us. We educate people about insurance. You see us being very dominant in the social space to carry a message across. Sometimes, I get feedback that we behave as if we are not an insurance company, but a media company. But it is deliberate to be able to communicate our message differently to the insuring public. Another thing that makes us different is the speedy nature of our claims processing. We say that all the questions need to be asked at onboarding, all the T’s and I’s need to be dotted and crossed. So, when it is time for claim, we do not take you through a long process. We believe we are in business to pay claims by ensuring your satisfaction, bringing delight when you come to take your claim. Whatever benefits there are for you, we will get it done quickly and then you are good to go. We are also strong in terms of risk management. Intermittently, we will reach out to you to let you know how you can enhance or enrich the risks that we are protecting, be it property or life. In the life space, for instance, we actually provide free health screening to our corporate customers. We do not wait until the end of the year when we come back to you to renew a policy. We have a partnership with a health service provider where we will visit you to take your employees through the screening at no additional cost to the company so you can have a better picture of the health of your employees.

Are you looking for more partnerships, associations or joint ventures to boost your business?

We are strong in partnerships. For example, Melcom has been the biggest retail outlet in Ghana for the past 30 years, but no insurance company ever thought of partnering with them. We saw value in that and we decided to partner together with them. Our partnership philosophy is based on three principles. First and foremost, when the customer wins, the partner wins and we win. It is a triple win strategy and a very welcoming strategy. Anytime you meet any partner, through this triple win strategy, whatever revenue that is generated, whatever value that is brought to the table, a customer benefits and the partners benefit as well. Partnership is key. We continue to look forward to partners, but not just any partner. We want partners that share our value systems. Our purpose is to create and secure better futures for a lot more people. If our vision is aligned, then we will look forward to partnering. Melcom has a similar vision. Vivo is an oil marketing company who wants to reach out to a lot more customers across the country. There is that enablement, wanting to reach out to more and empower a lot more Ghanaians to use their products. These are the some of the things that drive us when we look for partners, whether it is a retail partner, whether it is smartphones, whether it is oil marketing companies; whatever it is, if there is alignment in terms of our vision, then we are willing and ready to partner.

What are the things that distinguish yourself, in terms of the service that you provide and in terms of the product that you provide?

In the next five years, we want to be Ghana’s favorite insurer. We are getting closer to getting to the top 10 and we should be part of the very top the next few years. We are very optimistic about that.

Each product line seeks to address a specific need and each one of them comes with a lot of innovations, many of them industry firsts. When we did the market research to introduce our Adepa Family Plan, for example, we realized that there was a gap in the market and we needed to close that gap. We noticed that there was not a product that was comprehensive enough, covering more lives. The typical Ghanaian would have a lot of extended family members. It goes beyond nuclear to extended family members and given the opportunity, you would want to give insurance coverage to all these extended family members. So, we said the policy should have a feature of benefits that allows the policyholder to insure a lot more people. For the first time, we introduced a plan where you could insure as many as 24 family members. The second is a funeral policy. More people are looking for some money back and there are some products in the market that have a cash back feature. We were the industry first again to say that we are we are introducing a 20% cash back to the customer whether he made a claim or not. This is the first of its kind in the market. Whether you made a claim or not, after contributing for five years, you get 20% of your money back. It comes with a family income element, which is again the first of its kind in the market. It says we are going to give you a portion of whatever claims we are paying for you to be able to take care of your funeral needs immediately and then give you a family income monthly payment for the next 60 months. This is basically to cushion the family, especially if the breadwinner has passed. We give the opportunity to the customer to actually choose the number of years he wants this to run: two years, three years, five years. The market does not offer that. Usually, insurance is paid out and is used to organize flamboyant funerals and the next moment, the family is in disarray, the family is frustrated, they need money to survive, they do not get money at all. With this plan, the monthly payment for the next 60 months cushions and stabilizes the family for up to five years for them to be able to look for other sources of making money. These are the unique features that Adepa Family presents to the market. It is catching up a lot with the insuring public. Adepa is nuclear family driven where when the policyholder makes single payments, that covers your spouse if you are married and up to five children. Should there be a claim, we actually return your entire premium back to you and then pay your claims as well. This is a novelty in the market. For every home, with as little as 28 Ghana cedis, you can get coverage. Then, we have the Purple Employee Plan. That is linked to the health screening, basically targeting corporate institutions, associations. Employees would not have to use their salary to take care of whatever contingencies occur and the employer would not have to shift or rebalance his accounts to be able to take up employees. All they need to do is to come to Hollard Life on the Purple Employee Plan and then we make payment available to them. It is an annual policy and it has unique benefits. Beyond the traditional scope of death and disability, we have introduced Purple Monthly Grocery Plan where having paid your lump sum, on a monthly basis we then pay you a grocery amount, something to keep the family going without having to touch the lump sum. The lump sum can be used to do something monumental and then the grocery amount is used to just make sure the family will survive on their monthly groceries. MeBanbɔ is our latest plan which is a mass product targeting the underserved. It is a digital product on your phone. You do not need to complete any form. In a matter of 30 seconds, you can be onboarding. You just dial a short code, it takes you through the steps, and you can cover yourself, cover your parents, cover your other dependents as well.

How do you envision the future of your division in three to five years’ time?

In the next five years, we want to be Ghana’s favorite insurer. We are getting closer to getting to the top 10 and we should be part of the very top the next few years. We are very optimistic about that. We are on a growth strategy. With the kind of partnerships we have and with the kind of services we are providing, we believe our vision of being Ghana’s favorite insurer is right on track.

What is your motivation? What is your inspiration?

In one word, “impact”. When I impact clients, I drive a lot of satisfaction. I want to do more. I walk into the office and I am able to solve one customer’s problem. I just believe that, yes, I have brought smiles to the customer’s face and I look forward to the next smile and the next smile and the next. I believe that life is about impact. Currently, what is difficult is enabling more people to secure better futures. At my personal level, what drives me is when I see this impact being felt either by groups, by customers, by families, by associations, I feel this satisfaction. That is what keeps driving me. I believe that our purpose in life is to be able to impact other lives and I will continue to do that.

ABOUT HOLLARD: Hollard Ghana combines deep local knowledge of the market with the world-class expertise of an international insurance brand. With headquarters in South Africa but feet firmly planted on Ghanian soil, Hollard is able to deliver innovative insurance solutions. Starting out in Ghana as Madison Insurance in 1993, the company was recapitalised and renamed Metropolitan Insurance Company Limited (MET) in 1997. In 2006, the company took the decision to move its focus away from life insurance to other personal and commercial insurance products. In 2015, the Hollard Group acquired a majority shareholding in the company. Hollard Ghana is a member of the Ghana Insurers Association (GIA), West Africa Insurance Companies Association (WAICA), and the African Insurance Organization (AIO).

For more information, please visit: www.hollard.com.gh.

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