Nthatuoa Koeshe
LIBERTY Life Lesotho is providing a mix of technological innovations that will see services brought to the client for efficient delivery, the insurance company’s Managing Director, Makhakhe Maliehe said this week.
Mr Maliehe said at the hosting of the company’s inaugural annual insurance and business breakfast seminar held yesterday.
Liberty Life Lesotho is a specialist life insurance company that provides group and individual risk insurance solutions and comprehensive health cover for life-changing events; and also offers an extensive range of products and services to help Basotho build and protect long-term wealth.
The annual seminar formed part of Liberty’s thought leadership and knowledge sharing initiatives as a response to calls for greater consumer education. This seminar focused on key developments and trends within the insurance industry.
This year’s theme was: Digital Disruption and the Impact of Technology on Insurance Underwriting.
Addressing the seminar, Mr Maliehe said they saw it fit to explore this debate with their stakeholders in the insurance business ecosystem to discuss key local, regional and international trends; and to share insights particularly from their perspective as an underwriter.
He explained that Liberty Life Lesotho are an organisation that understands the value of knowledge and its power to change realities when set in action.
“Our purpose is to make financial freedom possible well beyond the business impact, it’s about changing the realities of the communities in which we do business,” Mr Maliehe said.
He said at Liberty they have already rolled-out what is called office in briefcase where the sales force goes to the market and with this office in a briefcase, they conduct transactions with the client.
The office in a briefcase innovation marks the beginning of a series of other initiatives that Liberty Life Lesotho is looking forward to introducing onto the market to make access to services easier for all people. This follows a realisation that sometimes for a customer to go look for a sales agent, it can take a longer time.
“We have a Digital Strategy which we will be introducing depending on the needs of the market and some may require regulatory approval, but we are looking into bringing them onto the market.”
Mr Maliehe said the world is more connected than ever, but the nature of its connections has changed in a fundamental way. “Individuals are using global digital platforms to learn, search for work, showcase their talent, and build personal networks. We all know about social media and how it has transformed our lives drastically,” he said.
Also speaking at the seminar, Guest speaker, Actuary Greg Becker of Munich Re Business Development presented an analysis on the future of underwriting in technology.
He explained that the digital age is disrupting traditional customer service models, with new customer touch-points appearing the world over at break-neck speed and against a backdrop of very demanding clients and rising expectations.
“At the moment life insurance applications are paper-based where one answers questions provided, but in the future, all this will be done on mobile phone applications. In that case, we won’t need to weigh a person or measure their heart to work out their body mass index because all that will be done through technology,” he said.
He said mobile applications will revolutionise the sector, “In the past if you wanted to buy a life insurance policy in Lesotho you had to find an agent, but time will soon come when clients will be able to do such transactions through mobile phone applications.”
