Transformation and skills development key to SA insurance sector growth

Amid the tough economic conditions and regulatory challenges that are affecting the growth of the insurance industry in South Africa, we are still facing further constraints due to the slow pace of transformation and skills development.

Skills development needs to go hand in hand with transformation in order for the insurance industry to evolve.

This is according to Adam Samie, CEO of Lion of Africa Insurance, who says that industry role players need to work together to promote skills development and ultimately eliminate all discriminatory barriers in the local industry. “There is currently a massive shortage of skills in the short-term insurance space, and as a result, a lot of previously disadvantaged people are still denied access to opportunities.”

“Although there has been some form of transition in the South African insurance industry, we cannot ignore the fact that there are still black entrepreneurs that are struggling to succeed in specialist areas such as reinsurance brokering, intermediation and loss adjusting,” adds Samie.

He says that true transformation in the industry will only be possible when companies start to focus on the development of the previously excluded portion of South Africa’s people, which will ensure that the country can achieve its economic goals on a sustainable basis, for the benefit of all.

“More needs to be done to increase economic activity for people that have been previously excluded, and that is what really lies at the heart of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE).”

In particular, he explains that insurance companies can facilitate skills development through the creation of long-term strategies and in-house training programmes that can be tailored to ensure that employees and graduates entering the workplace environment are able to meet and exceed the requirements necessary to function in today’s insurance arena.

“Transformation requires all of us to break away from the past so that we can create a new sustainability that allows for a shared vision of the future for all the people in South Africa,” concludes Samie.