Insurance industry needs to accelerate BEE transformation - Samie

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."

Skills development of previously excluded persons

"Allowing access to South Africans that were previously excluded from opportunities is an economic imperative," says Samie.

"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.

Long-term strategies for sustainable transformation

"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)," says Samie.

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.

For more information, go to www.lionsure.com.