NDB sets up insurance wing
The National Development Bank (NDB) has launched an insurance agency to offer bancassurance solutions that will cushion customers against various risks incurred when taking and using the bank’s different credit products.
The products will be offered through partnerships with Botswana Insurance Holdings Limited’s (BIHL) subsidiaries, Botswana Life and Botswana Insurance Company.
General insurance cover will include agriculture, property and building, and machinery and motor insurance while the life insurance solutions will include life and funeral cover, retirement and investment cover, key person insurance as well as hospital cashback.
Speaking at the launch this week, NDB CEO, Lorato Morapedi said the insurance agency was officially licensed by the NonBank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA) on November 30, 2021.
“We invest in a risky space, from start-up businesses where research has proved that 90% of these hardly survive the first three years and in agriculture where weather conditions
compound the already risky nature of the sector,” she said.
“Our customers indicated that it would be convenient for them if we could offer a onestop service centre encompassing loan application together with insurance cover.”
For her part, finance ministry’s deputy Permanent Secretary for Financial Policy, Boikanyo
Mathiba said BIHL would bring value by working together with NDB’s insurance agency to continuously develop cutting edge innovative bancassurance products that will not only benefit NDB customers but also the country’s economy at large.
“I hope that this new product will benefit both small and medium enterprises across various sectors and their employees, as well as the public at large while in the process promoting financial inclusion,” she said.
“In short term, the agency should boost the local banking and insurance sectors.”
Between 2008 and 2018, NDB invested P1.7 billion in different agricultural sub-sectors made up of P889 million in arable farming, P730 million in livestock production, P51 million in horticulture and P10 million in poultry. The investments were geared towards improving commercialisation of the sector and enhancing sustainable food production.
“This level of investment requires risk mitigation instruments and it is my belief that through this partnership we will see more agricultural insurance products being offered by the BIHL group in partnership with NDB to support the growth of agriculture locally,” Mathiba said.