Momentous Year As BIC Celebrates 40
Staff Writer | Monday December 21, 2015 15:51
As they turned 40, BIC says they were proud of a clientele data base of 17,000 customers‚“We have managed to retain customers who have been with the company from when it first opened doors for business,” says Komissa Burzlaff BIC Strategy Development & Marketing manager. With a staff compliment of 79, Burzlaff says BIC operates from three offices in the country, the head office located in Gaborone and two branches in Francistown catering for the Northern region and another in Maun, where they mostly cater for the tourism and aviation industries. As they celebrate 40, the BIC says claims payment turnaround time has immensely improved from the previous years. “Clients have experienced faster turnaround times and improved service delivery. Claims payment is critical in our business operations because clients base their judgements on the organisation’s ability to pay claims and the turnaround time; the trust and loyalty factors are driven by our ability to pay claims on time, and where possible exceed clients’expectations”.
Nurturing talent and continuous skills development is another area BIC prides itself in, according to Burzlaff
She says they also have forged a strategic partnership with a major bank that provides a platform to provide useful and relevant general insurance products to those banking clients. “So going forward our aim is to continue to maintain a consistent level of quality service to our clients”.BIC comes in handy when clients need to claim for loss of their insured property. According to Burzlaff, motor claims make up approximately 80% of all claims lodged to the company.
The Monitor also asked BIC about their experience in claims fraud in their 40 years existence:
“The rise of fraud within the short-term insurance industry is worrisome. This isnot only confined to BIC or Botswana, it is a growing global concern. Businesses lose huge sums of money every year due to fraudulent deals. However we have invested in systems and implemented certain measures to reduce cases of fraud. Relationships with local, regional and international authorities have also been established and the partnership approach has been effective at curtailing the amount of fraudulent claims‚Äù, the company responded in a statement.
BIC was originally owned by Botswana Development Corporation( 51%) and J.H.
Minet & Company Limited of London(49%). J.H. Minet was later bought out by St
Paul (UK) Ltd, a subsidiary company of the St Paul Incorporation of Minnesota USA. In 1991 BIC was restructured to provide only short term market solutions.
BIC was the first insurance company in Botswana to be awarded an AA‚Äê credit rating, the highest national rating a short term insurer in Botswana can currently attain. According to Burzlaff the AA‚Äê credit rating was achieved through BIC‚Äôs firm capital accumulation, through sound earnings generation, underwriting profits and stable investment income. In the year that the country’s oldest insurance company celebrated its 40th anniversary new of a P82.6 million acquisition of a stake by Botswana Insurance Holdings(BIHL) gathered momentum as the proposal was lodged with the Competition Authority to give it the thumbs up.
BIHL announced they were considering a series of proposed transactions that will result in the acquisition of up to 50 percent of stake in BIC.
Should the Competition Authority give the move the green light in the new year, the move would allow BIHL and BIC to enhance their product offering and the ability to cross sell with a view of creating greater value for the shareholder.