Henri Mittermayer
Managing Director, Hollard Moçambique
Besides the obvious language and cultural difference that is uniquely Mocambican—Hollard Moçambique has had to provide solutions across a broad spectrum of general insurance and life assurance offerings. We do this through two licences, namely Hollard Seguros (short term) and Hollard Vida (life). These offerings range from engineering and multi-faceted assets and commercial policies to individual motor and homeowner cover to personal accident, group life, funeral, and health. The facts are that from a low base at this stage the insurance sector in Mozambique is, by any standards, defined as small. Total gross premium income figures, including life and short term, are reported to be around the $150 million to $200 million mark. The market is under insured and predominantly commercial and corporate in its nature, riding on the back of new investments in the country. We have had to adapt to the situation, which does make us in some ways different from our sister companies elsewhere. We have developed a successful composite insurance and life assurance model, and we see ourselves in the short and medium term following the same model.
Simba Manunure
Executive Director, Nico Moçambique Vida
Group life and life insurance for companies have been positive. These account for 90% of our business. On the other hand, the individual life segment has been a challenge. We have pursued a robust program of promotion and sales; however, the uptake has been lower than anticipated. Still, we are not too surprised by this, as it is just our first year and we believe we have to educate people more on the issue—not just the clients, but also those who sell the products, because we sell through agencies on a commission basis. To help facilitate this, we try to simplify our product offering. If you approach people with a complicated product and a complex calculation of interest over what you’re going to get over the next 10 years, clients tend not to buy into it. Instead, we came up with a product that is sold with coupons. You just go in, fill in the details, and buy it. We are trying to simplify our individual life sales. By its very nature, group insurance will always be a larger activity. A group life policy can give you $500,000 in net cash, whereas individual life would only give you $500. Therefore, the balance will ideally be 85% group life and 15% individual life, in income terms. But in terms of clients, we would like to have more in the individual life than the group life component.
Ruben Chivale
CEO, Ruben Chivale
Indico Seguros entered the insurance sector in July 2011, launching operations in September of that year. The following year, 2012, was a difficult and ultimately formative one for Indico Seguros, as we had to establish the company culture, mission, and vision, and then follow it through. Nevertheless, we posted a profit in our first full financial year, which is rather unique. We now have a budget of $6 million, and have registered 142% growth in 2013. We are passionate about what we are doing, and always make sure this reflects to our clients. We started off by providing an excellent service, rather than focusing on low prices. In fact, we received an award in France in 2012 for our commitment to quality; we were further awarded for excellence in New York, and again in London by the European Society for Quality Research. In 2013, we were named in the Super Brands Mozambique 2014 awards. We also received the “Made in Mozambique“ seal in confirmation of the fact that we comply with set standards of quality and professional conduct.
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