Woman on the mine
Newly appointed head of Alexander Forbes Risk Services' metals and minerals division, Debbie Geraghty, says, "Things have moved on since the days when No Woman Allowed signs appeared on mines and male colleagues warned that there was no place for women in mining."
She's also relieved to report that mines now have ladies changing rooms for her to gear-up in before mine inspections.
Geraghty began her career in insurance straight from school, something she'd like to see more of these days. "A major challenge in the underwriting industry in South Africa today is skills development."
"While Alexander Forbes is good at producing and retaining talent, and certainly exports skills to other sectors, the industry is still not attracting enough youngsters. At the same time it is loosing the valuable experience of seasoned over-50s, mainly to greener pastures abroad or other sectors."
Geraghty argues that, "In the past too much emphasis was placed on graduates. But once a B.Com has been around a few years they want to become CA's and move on".
Instead Geraghty believes that, like her, "Getting people straight from school and providing them with skills directly appropriate to the underwriting industry is more likely to see people stay in the industry."
"This will also ensure that we control the quality of the skills acquired while keeping skills development relevant to industry needs.
Skills aside, growing the business remains a major challenge. "With a lot of South African miners going global Alexander Forbes often looses business to big global operators. Competition with major global underwriters, however, presents as many opportunities as challenges in that Alexander Forbes gains ever-wider global exposure and experience.
More recently Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) legislation has limited foreign investment in the mining industry in South Africa. In response investors are increasingly looking north for more investment friendly environments as, "Africa sees a proliferation of exciting new ventures.
Furthermore, 'The growing presence of global mining players in Africa makes for an interesting market. The establishment of Afrinet in Africa, working through local consortiums, but sourcing underwriting expertise through Alexander Forbes in South Africa, has enabled us to service these new markets."
Looking to the future Geraghty believes that, "Growing capacity and developing efficiency in port and rail infrastructure is critical to growth in the mining sector. Shortage of stock as well as breakdowns, bottlenecks and processing delays at goods yards and ports is severely impacting growth."
'Solving these problems will mean a lot more building', Geraghty concludes, "something that, like mining, can only add to our business as the economy grows."
