THE Insurance Institute of Zimbabwe (IIZ) recently hosted its first-ever Insurance Strategic Leadership Summit in South Africa, aiming to equip local insurance companies with strategies to thrive in an evolving industry. Assistant editor Mthandazo Nyoni (MN) sat down for an exclusive interview with the organisation’s president, Clementine Chinyuku (CC), who emphasised the critical need for innovation to ensure the industry’s sustainability. Below are key excerpts from their conversation:
MN: What is your vision for the institute during your tenure, and how do you plan to position the organisation as a leader in the African insurance industry?
CC: IIZ is the training arm for the insurance industry and our objective is to train the insurance professional. Insurance professionals come from university with a degree, but we are now giving them on-the-job training.
Apart from the on-the-job training, we also want to see that the professional continuously develops because there is nothing that is static. The insurance space is dynamic, the client is dynamic, and the products are dynamic. Our professionals need to keep up to date with what is happening and the trends that are there, the risks themselves, even how they are underwritten, has been changing over the years and continues to change. I think this is our major role to ensure that the insurance professional who is underwriting, assessing, working on and pricing these risks, is up to date with not only international standards, but even with the current Zimbabwean environment and economy in terms of what is going on.
We also want to bring in relevant topics in terms of continuous professional development. We have things such as your climate change. It is only when you have a professional, who is well grounded and well-groomed that you can be able to address some of the issues that are pertaining to this particular industry.
MN: What are your top three priorities as the president, and how do you intend to address them in the short and long term?
CC: One of the gaps that has been there is that while we have been training, we have not been monitoring professional development within the industry. We are going to soon be launching a structured continuous professional development assessment. We will want to insist that our practitioners are abiding by the minimum hours that they need to put in in terms of their continuous professional development to encourage our professionals to be learning in the various dimensions that they can learn because without learning, you are not able to innovate.
We have been calling for innovation within the industry. That is the key thing that we are going to come up with in the next few months. The second issue, which is a medium term, is that we are going to be introducing relevant diplomas to complement the degrees that people have from the various universities.
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Our universities are doing a great job in terms of preparing our professionals academically. But we would like to bring in relevant certification, for example, diploma in underwriting, diploma in claims assessment or claims underwriting. Again, it is something that we are looking at and trying to see how we can be able to bring this in as well so that we have got professionals, who are particularly certified in specific technical areas.
MN: How about in the long term?
CC: In the long term, we do have a property where we would like to build an insurance school. This is something that we are actively working on and we do hope by the end of this year, we would have started some building in that particular area. Primarily why we would like the insurance school is that it then gives us space to then do our short courses. It gives us space to where we can run our examinations in the comfort of our own space. It also then just gives us that identity in the industry to say this is the insurance school.
MN: What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the insurance industry in Zimbabwe and across Africa, and how can the IIZ help address these challenges?
CC: Topical is the issue of product relevance. This is one of the things that we have been talking about in terms of the products that are relevant according to the demographics. We have heard the demographics are changing. We have got a younger population that is not the same as the one that was there in the prior years. Their demands like we heard in terms of technologically driven products, in terms of the ease of on-boarding, the ease of claims.
Key or central to this is just really issues of innovation and bringing relevant products to the market. What we would like to see is our own professionals being able to innovate and bring solutions around this particular problem of product relevance. We want insurance professionals, who can solve problems and the problem we have is what the products that are going to be relevant are.
MN: How can AI come in there?
CC: There were discussions around how we can leverage AI in terms of our products. Some of the topical issues that came in is how we can use AI in our underwriting, for example. Or how we can use AI in our claims. For me, sometimes people might think AI is dramatic, but I would like to simplify it and say we can harness AI to be able to underwrite seamlessly and issue policies instantly without taking too much time.
We are looking at efficiencies so that we can become more profitable. So, if you put in efficiencies in underwriting, it will reduce the costs. If you put in efficiencies in your claims processes, it also reduces the overall cost to the business and ultimately brings in profitability. I am looking at issues or areas around that to say, how AI helps us in terms of making our business processes seamless, making us more cost efficient, making our service delivery also faster, easier and friendly. Customers want simplicity, quick turnaround times and results. So, this is how we can be able to leverage AI in terms of our deliverables to the customer.
MN: How do you plan to attract and develop young talent in the insurance sector to ensure the industry’s sustainability and growth?
CC: Our demographics have shifted. The young people are very valuable in terms of the insurance industry because they shall be our future consumers of our insurance products. Secondly, they are also our current or future insurance professionals. We need to harness or tap into that particular demographics.
As IIZ, we have partnered with various universities, such as Great Zimbabwe State University, Midlands State University, and National University of Science and Technology — so that we can also be able to collaborate and tap into that demographic, while they are still in the universities. But we are not ending there. We are also looking at doing road shows to schools so that we then attract them to doing our certifications, while they are still in high school, so that they understand that these are options available. They can come into the insurance space by doing our certificates, our diplomas. We have got different categories that they can actually be able to enrol in and also be part of the insurance professionals.
MN: What steps will the IIZ take to strengthen collaboration with other African insurance bodies and promote cross-border insurance solutions?
CC: Collaboration for us as an institute is very important because we are not on our own island; we are in a global village. We need to be collaborating, partnering, exchanging notes and engaging with our peers in various jurisdictions. I am very excited to say that one of our partners, Insurance Institute of South Africa (IISA), was actually a part of the summit.
We had Thokozile Mahlangu, who was one of the presenters, sharing insights on the insurance market in South Africa. That just shows you that we have positive collaboration, not only just locally that I spoke about, about the universities, but across our borders. With the Insurance Institute of South Africa, we are also looking at having our courses accredited with the IISA.
Going forward, it is a discussion that is at a very advanced stage and we would like to ensure that our courses are accredited so that they can become recognisable and acceptable and transferable wherever any one of our professionals actually goes. As you know, our professionals are well sought out in the world, but we would like them to carry the IIZ certification and let that be acceptable. So, we feel that the accreditation with IISA then helps to be able to achieve that milestone.
We are collaborating with different other countries as well. We have got Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, and Angola, who we are collaborating with. They are actually writing our exams and getting certification from the IIZ and we believe that we are going to engage with even more institutions outside of Zimbabwe to broaden our footprint in Africa.
MN: As a female leader in a traditionally male-dominated industry, what advice do you have for women aspiring to leadership roles in insurance?
CC: I am particularly passionate about growing the young ladies in the insurance industry. I am currently the second vice president at Women in Insurance in Zimbabwe. This is something that we are seized with in terms of encouraging our young professionals to grow in this industry. My advice in general or in just a few words would be that it is important to work hard. Hard work brings results. I know sometimes you would like to get there in a few moments or in a microwave space but that is not how you get there. I encourage hard work. I also encourage people not to be shy to take up the challenge. I know sometimes when you are faced with a challenge or you are given a role or you are asked to do something, the first thing that you think about is, I cannot do it.
No one has died from making mistakes or failing. I encourage the female upcoming professionals to not shy away from challenges. Do not shy away from responsibilities. Do not shy away from added duties. Sometimes in the added duties, that is where you are learning. That is where you are getting groomed.
MN: What outcomes or initiatives do you hope to see emerge from this inaugural summit, and how will they shape the future of the industry?
CC: The summit has fostered honest conversations about the industry. We have learned from South Africa’s market and will consolidate key takeaways into actionable recommendations. One proposal is to form industry teams to study best practices in other markets and bring those insights back to Zimbabwe. This will help shape a more innovative and competitive industry.
