The wait is finally over…
What a season and what a year!
Deemed to have been one of the best, the wait is finally over as the winner of The Insurance Apprentice 2020 has been announced.
Doing things a little differently, the announcement of the winner took place last night, when Amogelang Kgaladi was crowned as the winner of The Insurance Apprentice 2020, during a live online finale on TIA’s Facebook and YouTube pages.
We were supposed to announce the winner on 24 March, and COVID19 forced us to postpone. We adapted to the new way of doing things and the chaos and uncertainty it has caused and decided to tread on. With all indications very clear that group gatherings will not really happen for the rest of 2020, we decided to take the event online. The show had to go on and with technology at our fingertips, what better way to end a show then with a gathering of all our online followers… and host the grand finale you have all been waiting for!
The grand finale
The Insurance Apprentice LIVE Finale shared a small part of the apprentice's journey during filming week. It was most certainly intense, but no doubt a learning experience of a lifetime.
Joined by the apprentices, the evening started off with Master of Ceremonies, Nico Panagio (the host of Survivor SA) welcoming apprentices and viewers.
Prizes, prizes, prizes
As the evening progressed a few prizes were awarded. This year the competition went up a few levels. We had the #Superfan competition, an audience favourite and team player award, of course our social media competition sponsored by Elite Risk Acceptances.
Congratulations to Alleta Basi Nkoane our #Superfan, on winning the R20 000 cash and thank you Constantia Insurance for sponsoring such an awesome prize.
This year followers on all social media platforms and FAnews.co.za had the opportunity to vote for their favourite contestant. Not the one they were routing for to win, but a favourite, favourite contestant. The one they just really liked, for whatever reason. Congratulations to JP Ellis who was voted as the audience favourite. We thank each and every one of our followers on all of our platforms who took the time to vote. As an audience favourite JP won a Smart Home starter kit, including a Google Home Hub, sponsored by Innosys.
Voted for by peers in the competition as the best team player, we also saw Yaseen Essop (TIA2020 top nine), awarded with a classy leather laptop bag sponsored by Liberty.
Elite Risk Acceptance sponsored five cash prizes for people who really engaged in different ways on our social media platforms; this added thousands of additional views to the already 450 000 views we had.
The big announcement
Keeping the audience entertained, during the LIVE Finale, Panagio engaged with the apprentices in an open question and answer session. The open discussion allowed for the contestants to be able to hash things out and for more clarity regarding how everyone played in the competition… plenty of cringe-worthy and some truly, ergh, game-changing moments.
The audience also had the privilege of looking at some of the never seen before behind the scenes footage… absolutely entertaining!
Panagio then reminded viewers of who the top two apprentices were – Amogelang Kgaladi and Memory Zimba – with Kgaladi announced as the winner. FAnews would like to congratulate Kgaladi on winning the title of The Insurance Apprentice 2020 and all the finalists for undergoing tough challenges.
Kgaladi will fly to London, for a week to visit Lloyds of London, sponsored Lloyds of London; he also received a bursary valued at R75 000 from Inseta and won a cash prize of R20 000 from GIFS. Kgaladi also walked away with R10 000 from Tracker and an Apple watch sponsored by Genasys Technologies. Discovery Insure surprised Kgaladi just after he was announced, with a delivery at his door… definitely one of the highlights of the evening!
GIFS also sponsored two bursaries for the third and second place and CIB sponsored an anti-theft backpack, as well as various other CIB goodies for the second place. Liberty gave the third place a classy leather laptop bag.
A word of thanks
We would like to thank Hollard, the main sponsor of the online event and co-sponsors Bryte, Chubb, Discovery Insure and Santam for a night to remember… we made history tonight, and we could not have done it without you.
We would also like to thank our prize sponsors; CIB, Constantia, Elite Risk Acceptances, Genasys Technologies, Graduate Institute of Financial Sciences (GIFS), Innosys, Inseta, Liberty, Lloyds of London, Tracker and Elite Risk Acceptances.
Our 2020 sponsors
We would like to thank all the sponsors for their sponsorship and support of The Insurance Apprentice 2020. Without you, the series would not have been possible, and we cannot begin to say THANK YOU enough.
The sponsors are: AC Develop, African Insurance Exchange, AIG, Aon South Africa, Auto & General, Bryte Insurance, Chubb, CIB, Constantia Insurance, Discovery Insure, Elite Risk Acceptances, Emerald Africa, FNB Insurance Brokers, Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), Genasys Technologies, GIFS, Hollard, Inseta, Innosys, Innovation Group, Liberty, Lloyds of London, Marsh Africa, Old Mutual Insure, Santam, Sasria, SHA Risk Specialists and Tracker.
Writer’s Thoughts
Wow… what a season! It was an action packed series, filled with many twists and turns, awesome prizes and giveways. Although the wait is finally over, with the winner being announced, it is a sad moment as we bring this chapter to an end, and begin on another... and that is TIA2021! In case you missed it, applications for the next series have already opened, if you want to apply visit www.theinsuranceapprentice.co.za. If you have any questions please comment below, interact with us on Twitter at @fanews_online or email editor@fanews.co.za
