Covid-19 exposes need for insurance cover to pandemics

Leonard Ncube , Victoria Falls Reporter
THE ravaging Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the need for remodelling the pensions sector to mainstream insurability of disasters and pandemics, industry experts have said.

World economies continue to suffer the adverse impact of Covid-19, which has strained business operations and led to loss of jobs for thousands of workers, thereby affecting livelihoods and social security.

The insurance sector, which has been battling low confidence, was not spared as it has experienced low contributions, arrears and reduction in cover by policy holders in response to economic hardships and retrenchments, according to the Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC).

Speaking during the virtual launch of the 2021 Journalist Mentorship Programme, jointly organised with the National Social Security Authority (Nssa) recently, IPEC director for actuarial service, Mr Robson Mutangadura, stressed the need for the sector to evolve and consider extending cover to pandemics.

“We now have an idea and going forward will be able to cover such risks,” he said while responding to questions.

“Studies from other jurisdictions are pointing to the need to partner the industry and the need for different modelling.”

Commenting on the same issue, director occupational health and safety at Nssa, Dr Charles Shava, said employees were generally covered under Nssa should they get infected or injured while at work.

In a recent interview at the Regulators and CEOs Forum hosted by the Organisation of Eastern and Southern Africa Insurers (OESAI) in partnership with IPEC in Victoria Falls, OESAI secretary general and CEO Ms Rose Wanda said Covid-19 had reconfigured the insurance sector as insurers are coming up with models to ensure proper coverage and pricing.

“The first impression was that Covid-19 being a pandemic was excluded from cover but it has opened a new era and now being covered,” she said.

“It should be covered as a risk and we also need to think of other pandemics.”

Ms Wada said Covid-19 has brought a new way of thinking on how to reach members as it is becoming more and more impossible to meet face-to-face, with the online doctor model now common as the industry is changing with time.

Managing director for Continental Reinsurance in Kenya, Mr Souvik Banerjea weighed in saying: “Covid-19 has changed how we perform and work and 2020 was a watershed. Global warming is with us and here to stay and so we have to understand the dynamics. Catastrophic incidents in the face of global warming are going to be well pronounced and it’s better to be conservative and make sure that whatever risks that are coming up are well budgeted for.”

Zimbabwe is a member of the African Risk Capacity Insurance Company Limited (ARC Ltd), a specialised agency of the African Union and designed to improve current responses to climate-related food security emergencies.

Already, the Government has been giving payouts to civil servants and other frontline workers to cushion them in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.— @ncubeleon.