Liberty Life In Strategic Partnership With Alexander Forbes

Correspondent | Monday April 10, 2017 13:35

 

Lerudi is a Setswana word meaning ‘shoulder’, a term synonymous with support, caregiving and provision of strength; all pledges the two organisations made in an effort to provide Batswana with peace of mind and to assist those in need.

In his opening statement Paul Masie, Managing Director of Alexander Forbes, cited the motivation of creating the scheme as the organisations’ continued desire to help Batswana achieve financial freedom. “We realised a gap that existed between the monthly contributions made by the individuals and the actual payout they get from their contributions as the contributions are high while the payout was very low.

Using the economies of scale to the customers’ advantage by creating an Umbrella Fund, Lerudi will be able to offer the market, in this case Burial Societies, higher funeral benefits with low contributions. Liberty is an underwriter of insurance and Forbes a brokerage and administrator, so it made very good sense to collaborate and create a product that leverages on both of our strengths to provide a solution to all Batswana,” Masie asserted.

A prize was awarded to Alexander Forbes staff member Thato Boshomane who came up with the name of the scheme in an internal competition.

“Lerudi sounded appropriate to me because I wanted to come up with a pure Setswana name which is a perfect product for Batswana in Botswana. Secondly, I think the word Lerudi is quite unique, and the definition of the word Lerudi is shoulder.

This fits in perfectly with the fact that when you lose someone in your life, you surely need a shoulder to cry on,” she explained. For her part, Lulu Rasebotsa, Managing Director of Liberty Life Botswana encouraged burial societies to lean on Lerudi as it will provide enhanced burial society offerings that will benefit members in terms of payouts and improve records management.

“Today, this collaboration brings us closer to answering the questions that everyone asks themselves in relation to their passing; Who will assist my family during this trying time? And, will I get the dignified send-off that I deserve? The answer; from as little as P20 per month, anyone can have a dignified send-off, and families can mourn their loss without worrying about the high cost associated with burying loved ones.

This product therefore improves and builds upon burial societies already in existence, both formally and informally in Setswana culture to provide a single platform in which all these societies can function under one roof,” she concluded.

Stemming from the two companies’ understanding of how Botswana society, and indeed funeral arrangements work, Lerudi Funeral Scheme carries additional support benefits over and above the actual funeral, to include the days leading up to the funeral.

These benefits include contributions towards merapelo, airtime for making arrangements, and other relevant activities. The support benefits available also include a tombstone benefit, a grocery benefit and a cow benefit which will be paid as a cash lump sum to the family.

Lerudi Funeral Scheme is only available to registered societies. The traditional structure of a burial society does not take into consideration things such as mortality rate, gender split and associated statistics when pricing, while Lerudi creates a more secure risk structure which will ensure that everyone receives their payout eventually, despite the number of claims.

Unregistered societies are therefore highly encouraged to do the necessary registration paperwork in order to be eligible for the offering.