Nyala Insurance is one of the most known private insurance companies in Ethiopia. Could you tell to our readers a brief historical background about your company ?
My insurance is called Nyala Insurance S.C. It has got 17 shareholders, who are all businesspersons from the private sector. It was established in July 1997, so it is rather new, and the 6th private insurance to be registered. It started with 25.0 million Birr paid up capital. That makes us the biggest private company. In point of fact we are also leading all the eight Private Insurers, in market share, number of Service Centers, in-the-state of the art information network and office facility set ups, number of young trained customer oriented graduate personnel, and giving extended hours of emergency attendance services, including weekends & public holidays.
We also think we are different from our competitors in marketing philosophy, recruiting and training of staff and in organizational structure. We believe in quality service and care to our customers, in setting risk related premiums, and is not being dragged into price war.
Concerning staff recruitment and training, we " grow our own trees " and develop own corporate culture. Our front line service providers are either taken in direct from University and/or from the market other than the Insurance Industry, but with no more than 3 to 4 years of work experience. They are then given intensive residential training under qualified national and international trainers. In short we are minimizing the influence of the 20 year command economy era on customer services and handling.
Organizationally each of our service centers are staffed with at least 3 graduates: 2 males and 1 female or 2 female and 1 male, and at least one of the three should speak the local language so that any customer coming in should be able to be served in the language he/she understands best ! (Our working language by the way is English ).
You mentioned that you wanted to build a corporate culture in your company. Could you elaborate more about your recruitment ?
Ethiopia has been in the command economy for some 20 years, and customer service has not been there at all. It was more or less take it or leave it marketing practices, worse than seller's market you probably understand. If we start recruiting front line service providers from the existing Insurance and/or so called then business organizations, it will be very difficult to convert, and make them handle customers the way we want. Our motto is care and protection to the customer. That commitment is depicted in the company logo. As you can see the logo, the circle represents the traditional Ethiopian " shield ", exemplifying our protection commitment with that of Ethiopian historic maintenance of Ethiopia with no colonial past ! The head of Mountain Nyala, once known as " Queen of Sheba's antelope " is endemic mammal to Ethiopia and was dangerously close to extinction until friends of the wold life in Ethiopia and outside care and saved them. Hence the Care & Protection mission and logo message.
Could you tell us the main guidelines of your strategies ? where do you see the best opportunities in the future growth of your company?
Ethiopia has only 10-15% of urban population. The majority are rural population, and that is why unlike the competition we opened up seven branches in the rural area at the time we opened 5 in Addis Ababa . It is not that we expected immediate return from these 7 rural locations, but we want to create the insurance awareness because we believe the potential is in the countryside. Yes, currently there is poverty and economic backwardness in the area. In the near future, however, the Agro-industry potential of this area is expected to fruit. Right now, Ethiopia per capital insurance premium is less than one dollar, some US$ 50.million in total, of which less than US$3.5 millions life and over 90% of the total is generated in Addis Ababa. The potential is there. It is a question of creating awareness and a question of economic development. Hence the potential is, as I see it in Agro-Industry and not in town, but outside, and our strategy is also geared in that direction.
One of your advantages is the service you give to your clients. Which are the new financial services you want to launch in the market ? Life insurance for example?
We had a license initially, to serve Life Insurance. We revisit our strategy and concluded we should not initiate life for the time being only. Reasons were many: Insurance awareness, lack of reliable statistical data on inflation, birth and death certification. Having said that, we have in mind a number of new products that may include life, that we may introduce to the market sooner or later.
The other companies as well, have the same projects concerning life insurance?
Some are indeed serve life insurance
What is your relation with local financial institutions, as well as with foreign financial institutions?
I wish foreigner partnership was allowed, not really for the cash inflow but more so for technology inflow: training, staff exposure, and introduction of new products, etc. I am afraid the law does not at this time allow foreigner investors to come in into financial institutions, be it in bank or insurance.
| Being one of the leading private businessman, how confident are you in the future of your country?
That is a tough question. I have to be confident and pragmatic. No private organization can be efficient as long as the government machinery is inefficient. If the government is efficient, the private sector will follow suite because the activities of the private sector is either enhanced and/or hampered by the day-to-day bureaucracy of a government and this is dependant on the type of people placed on the job. I am not sure to what extent our government is really committed to place or appoint individuals on basis of merit. I think they probably do on the basis of loyalty and/or affiliation to their respective parties one way or the other. If that trend continues, I think I will be less optimistic. If they do change and appoint people on the basis of competency, and with the sort of business background, there will be, I think tremendous future for the economy. We have the potential, and the domestic market , 50-60 million people is big. We have also good quality hard working people. The future should be bright, but as I said it all depends how the economic policies and applications there of are formulated.
Lately an increasing number of foreign companies started to pay more attention to Ethiopia. Do you think this will continue ? In your opinion what should be done to make the country more visible ?
To me, foreign investment has not started at all, attention may be ? Those who have invested are doing it in the non productive area. I know that the French claim to be the number one investors in this country, and all their new investment, as far as I know, is in brewery, and to me that should not be the country's priority. Beer is good, but it takes people off the job rather than keep them on the job. I would rather prefer investment to be in manufacturing & Agro-industries, not quick money earners with no added value. The government needs to attract long term viewers and such serious investors value political stability and time. Ethiopia has to improve its competitive edge over many other African and East European countries. So far good, but a long way to go. Ethiopia needs to overhaul its work habit and its decision making mechanism.
We also came to interview as a businessperson, could you give us a brief background about your own professional experience?
Well, I am an engineer by discipline. I graduated from an American University called Cornell. I returned and joined Ethiopian Airlines as Engineer Trainee and left it after four years as its Chief Engineer. Then joined Shell Ethiopia as an Engineer and worked there for some 30 years at various positions, in engineering, planning, marketing and general management areas, I had been posted within Shell International in UK, Finland, and West Africa, and returned to Ethiopia in 1994 after being the Chief Executive of Shell Ethiopia and Shell Sierra Leone for some 15 years combined. I then joined the Nyala Insurance S.C, as its Chief Executive in March 1995 and started its operation in July 1995. Why Insurance, you may ask ? I believe in Insurance, I like to transfer my risk to someone who is silly enough to take it at a minimum cost !. I also believe that Insurance and petroleum industry have some sort of similarities. You are selling something that the customer does not see, feel or touch. What you are really selling is " confidence " or trust ". May be that is why ?
What has been your most satisfying personal achievement since you are the Managing Director in this company?
I started it myself with few colleagues as the first Chief Executive. Priority was to have first class staff and I think we have it now. Believe me, I am very proud of the staff we managed to attract. I think with the caliber and dedication of the manpower we have, we can do a lot; in a short period of two and half years we have established first class reputation, customer's confidence, and stand out in the fore front of the competition. We should not be complacence, we still have a lot to do, and we are sure we are on the right track !
As a final issue, what will be your final message to our readers ?
Investors normally check and balance their information collected from Government, Embassies, and Private Industries. I do not expect them to accept or reject all what the government or the private industries are telling them. We in the private industry, may tend to be short sighted. If we had problems last week or the week before, we may reflect those problems, instead of reflecting the total process of doing our business and portray negative environment. On the other hand the government, like most governments do, may paint rosy pictures, not existing and not deliverable ! I expect foreign investors to check and balance what they have heard or read and at the same time I want them to be patient if and when they do not get what they want within their own time scale !. Investors should also realize the Ethiopian mentality. We are very cautious people, and we want to be double sure before making decision. Once we have made it, or signed agreement we always stick to it, with no exception whether we realize we had made a mistake or not. That is our culture and Investors should bear us out as such. |
NYALA INSURANCE S.C.