Regional reinsurance body seeks broader insurance cover here |08 May 2013

A three-day seminar organised by the African Reinsurance Corporation – in collaboration with the local insurance companies Sacos, H. Savy Ltd, and MUA Seychelles – is seeking to see how these types of insurance coverage can be made available in Seychelles. The event is being held at the Coral Strand hotel.

The seminar is also seeking to strengthen the skills of the staff from the companies in Seychelles, and how they can move forward keeping in line with the evolution in this sector especially in the African region.

The seminar was officially opened by the principal secretary for finance and trade Steve Fanny, who spoke about the importance of insurance and said the population needs to be educated more about insurance and how they can benefit from it.

“The insurance industry has significantly evolved over the years, and Seychelles needs to evolve with it as well, with emphasis on domestication of insurance,” he said.

“The recent disaster that hit three districts of Mahe hard in January should be a reminder of the necessity of having proper insurance.”

The general manager at the H. Savy Insurance company Lambert Woodcock said local insurance companies will benefit from the seminar by learning how to offer insurance for construction, engineering and survey.

“We are putting emphasis on domestication of assets, which is when people insure their assets; they do so locally, instead of insuring it overseas with foreign insurance companies. Domestication of assets will bring many benefits to the country, and with major effort put in educating people about the importance of domesticating their assets, we have been able to get a good number of them to insure locally,” he said.

“The demand for engineering, construction and survey insurance is already present in Seychelles, and is growing as time goes by, especially from big companies. In many cases, it might also be a requirement from certain financial institutions which is giving out a loan for a project.”

He added that local insurance companies are working with the government on an insurance scheme for boat owners, farmers and fishermen and hope to have it ready by July this year.

During the course of the seminar, the delegates will also visit the Seychelles Breweries where they will have talks on how to address insurance-related concerns when dealing with risks there.