Sikalesele-Vaka gets spring back in her step
Pauline Dikuelo | Friday October 2, 2015 11:39
BusinessWeek: Please give us a brief background of yourself, both as an employee and as an entrepreneur?
Sikalesele-Vaka: I graduated from University of Botswana in 1988 with a Bachelor of Laws degree; I then worked at Mosojane Phumaphi law firm in Francistown for five years before joining the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund as a legal officer and also as a corporate company secretary. Later in 1995 I worked as claims manager, then appointed as Deputy CEO in 1997, before being appointed as CEO in 1998 till 2004.
I then joined Botswana Life as the first female citizen CEO until 2010 where I moved to BIHL group as a single CEO, the position I left in 2011. I then got engaged with the youth games as chairperson of the committee from 2012 to 2014 at the same time I was setting up Bramer Life, which was licensed in 2013 and launched in June 2014.
BusinessWeek: Take us through the thought process that led to the establishment of Bramer Life?
Sikalesele-Vaka: When I was on sabbatical leave from 2011 to 2012, Mauritian shareholders approached me, as they needed to expand into Africa. They were looking for someone who could set up the business for them as a partner, so we went into partnership in 2012 and only managed to get a licence in 2013. The journey was long and difficult; as we had to come up with a business model, go through the registration process and negotiate the shareholder agreement before we could launch the company.
BusinessWeek: What challenges did you experience in setting up and getting going?
Sikalesele-Vaka: We encountered many challenges, and getting a licence was the worst. The application process took a long time to be processed, as we submitted the application in April and only got it in December. Another hurdle was getting people to understand our product because we were selling a promise, which was not tangible. It was difficult to break the market for them and the problem we had with the Mauritius shareholder did not make it easy.
BusinessWeek: What was your initial reaction to the shareholder issues that erupted earlier this year?
Sikalesele-Vaka: I was shocked; firstly because this was a major shareholder who was introduced into this market by the Mauritian government when they came on a trade mission in 2012. Secondly, this is the largest life insurance company in Mauritius that is regulated by the Financial Services Commission, so you’d think because of all of these checks that were made by their government, (I thought) it was the safest company to do business with.
BusinessWeek: What were the key lessons from that period?
Sikalesele-Vaka: I learnt a lot; firstly that taking a lot of comfort from having a parent company that is reliable, has a track record, is regulated, and recognisable do not work. This taught me that a surprise can come when least expected and that wisdom cannot be replaced. The scandal also taught me that when people combine efforts and maintain a single focus, getting a solution to everything will be easy. If I were not persistent, the company would have gone into liquidation, but I managed to survive through the motivation and inspiration I got from other people.
BusinessWeek: Give us a brief into the establishment of Bona Life and what differences, if any, are there from Bramer Life?
Sikalesele-Vaka: Bona Life is different from Bramer Life because it neither has a majority shareholder nor a parent insurance company and it is a citizen-owned company by CMB and BPOPF through BOP. It has got a captive market of people that are already members of the BPOPF and it is very broad.
BusinessWeek: Are there any listing plans for Bona Life?
Sikalesele-Vaka: We want to make Bona Life a company that is strong enough to be able to export to the rest of Africa, and will be easy to do because I have been in that environment before. Our immediate focus is to grow the business within the next five years, and do a listing on the BSE because it will allow other people that are not members of BPOPF and other citizens to also participate in the company. But the great motivation behind the listing is to create a purely indigenous company that Batswana can have an interest in. Listing also comes in handy when the company expands into the rest of Africa because by then the company would already have that scale and credibility needed to penetrate new markets.
BusinessWeek: Where do you see pockets of opportunity in the industry? Sikalesele-Vaka: The level of penetration of life insurance products is four percent of the GDP, so basically there is a lot of scope. We are going to be looking at creating markets. That is a huge opportunity; we want to come up with a model that will cater for everyone across the country.
BusinessWeek: Are you focusing on any niche market?
Sikalesele-Vaka: We are focusing on savings and retirement; we want people to think about retirement and the future rather than death. The market has jumped to the other extreme of life, so our main focus is getting young people to get life insurance. We want the market to get to a position where they view life insurance as they do tax.
BusinessWeek: Are you exploring the area of managing annuities and have you approached BPOPF in this regard?
Sikalesele-Vaka: We will be managing annuities, will be selling annuity products, hence the reason why our focus is on retirement. When you buy an annuity you come out of a pension fund and you are now buying a product that is going to pay you your pension. We want to be able to sell annuity products to all BPOPF’s members.
BusinessWeek: You are most well known for your tenure at BIHL. What are your highlights from that tenure?
Sikalesele-Vaka: BIHL was extremely exciting; one of my highlights was Botswana Life’s dominance as the company largely contributed to BIHL. I grew the company almost five times the size of what it was when I got there. The market share grew also from 65 percent to 85 percent. BIHL also supported Choppies before it listed and also set up Letshego Financial Services. They also gave a similar loan to BancABC and got involved in the development of properties in Botswana including SADC house (and) malls like Airport Junction.
BusinessWeek: You have built a reputation as a gritty, go-getter. What would you say makes Regina tick and what are your principles?
Sikalesele-Vaka: My major principle was put well to me by my son who said that ‘if you go out on a path to revenge, make sure you dig two graves’ as basically anything that is not motivated by goodness is going to backfire. I also try to live my life by doing things for the right reasons not doing them for convenience.