Life insurance needs to reach out to all sections of Sri Lankans, says insurance officials
Sri Lanka is a country which has faced major calamities like the Tsunami and ethnic strives and in such instances the country’s insurance companies have also compensated victims over and above the prescribed claims; paying the actual damages.
When the Tsunami of December 26, 2004 devastated infrastructure and livelihoods of tens of thousands of Sri Lankans, Janashakthi demonstrated its financial capability and established its dependability by meeting claims over and above what was written in to policies.
In explaining this, Rajitha Samaranayake, Senior Brand Manager, Non-Motor Category, Janashakthi Insurance told the Business Times in an interview in Colombo that the non-Motor Insurance in Sri Lanka had grown by 13 per cent over the last three years according to the figures issued by the Insurance Association of Sri Lanka. For the same corresponding period Janashakthi’s non-Motor Sector has grown by 23 per cent.
He said that Janashakthi has settled over Rs 35 billion in claims so far and in 2013 they have settled Rs 4.45 billion worth claims. For this steady growth, he said there are four key strengths; No. 1 is the strength derived from their corporate brand; No. 2 is the financial support of the company; No.3 is their strong trained corporate general insurance sales forces and No. 4 is their strong highly experienced senior management.
In addition, Mr. Samaranayake indicated that the technical competence and their strong re-insurance plays a vital role as their re-insurers have high credit and financial ratings given by international credit agencies. Janashakthi has been increasing their market share progressively within this period, he indicated.
In a private sector driven economy, he pointed out that insurance plays a dominant role, alongside such major components like, banking, shipping, transport, industry, etc.
He said that there are other economic components, such as agriculture and fisheries and also life insurance where the insurance penetration is somewhat low. This low penetration, he pointed out could be the lack of knowledge among the general public about the high benefits, specially once the bread-winner of the family dies.
The country’s economy would receive a tremendous boost if insurance becomes essential to a large segment of the population and in term benefit society as well, he said adding that educating the general public on insurance should be undertaken by insurance companies as well as the regulator.
At Janashakthi, advertising and promotional strategies that they adopt to develop their non motor business are quite different to what a business to consumer product line would adopt, he said adding that they predominantly use non-traditional mediums to get their messages across to their target audiences.
He said that the new corporate advertising campaign to launch their improved corporate brand identity in mid 2013 and branding the non motor category during the latter part of 2013 delivered positive results.
Life insurance penetration in Sri Lanka is low at 13 per cent (of the population), Mr. Samaranayake said. The insurance industry as a whole in Sri Lanka is involved in this awareness and orientation campaigns, but a concerted effort should be launched with professional, talented and competent personnel to educate and make aware of the tremendous benefits insurance could accrue.