Darlyn Jay: Good morning listeners. Welcome to this morning’s program where we give you useful information. We have Dr Sibert Mandega, Executive Director of Diaspora Insurance, in the studio this morning. He is going to talk to us about how the COVID 19 pandemic has affected insurance companies like Diaspora Insurance. It is a privilege to have people like him in the studio because they share with us important and valuable information.
Daryln: Dr Sibert, can you please briefly tell us what Diaspora Insurance is all about?
SM: Thank you Darlyn Jay for having us, Diaspora Insurance, in the studio this morning. Good morning to all our listeners. Diaspora Insurance is an insurance company that specialises in the designing, marketing, and distributing of specialist insurance products targeted at the niche African diaspora market globally. We provide personal protection policies like life covers and funeral insurance; our household name product is the Diaspora Funeral Cash Plan (DFCP). Diaspora Funeral Cash Plan allows African diasporas to cover themselves in the diaspora and their relatives anywhere in the world, including their home countries. We payout cash upon a claim to cover end-of-life expenses like body repatriation, flights, casket, memorial service, tombstones etc. As you know, body repatriation is very expensive and very few of us can fork out £10,000 to repatriate a body to say Ghana, for example. It is even more expensive if you live in the USA or Canada.
Diaspora Insurance is headquartered in Birmingham, United Kingdom, and we also have a call centre in South Africa. We have been operating for the past ten years and we have expanded to cover at least 13 African nationalities in the diaspora. Diaspora Insurance is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom and the Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA) in South Africa.
Darlyn Jay: Do you want to tell our listeners how the COVID pandemic affected your claims?
SM: Firstly, we would to extend our condolences to all those who lost their loved ones due to COVID 19. This is a very challenging period for everyone globally. Many sectors of the economy have been affected negatively including the life insurance sector. Diaspora Insurance experienced an increase in claims during the two waves in 2020 and early 2021. The third wave due to the Omicron variant is not as bad as the two previous waves. Because Diaspora Insurance is a global company, we experienced an increase in claims from the UK, USA, Australia and Africa but these spikes in claims happened at different times as the waves swept around globally.
But, what we need to understand is that an insurance company is all about paying out claims. This is where we create value to our clients. Our products and services continue to exceed our clients’ expectations especially during difficult times like these.
Darlyn Jay: People would like to know if Diaspora Insurance have increased their premiums due to COVID 19?
SM: That is a very interesting question and the answer is NO. With Diaspora Insurance, you get what we call guaranteed premiums; these are fixed for the rest of the life of the policy. This is premised on the tenet of treating customers fairly. Once you are on the policy your premiums remain the same.
Darlyn Jay: Now that you mentioned that there has been an increase in claims due to the pandemic and you have not increased your premiums, is there a risk of running out of money to pay claims?
SM: I can see where you are coming from. Diaspora Insurance is a properly constituted insurance company that spreads its risk across thousands of clients who are economically, demographically, and geographically widely spread. Our clients are across 5 different continents. We have experienced actuaries who stress test our capitalisation and reserves under different scenarios to ensure that we can meet our obligations when they become due. Besides, Diaspora Insurance is reinsured by one of the biggest reinsurers in the world. A reinsurer is a bigger insurance company that specialises in insuring insurance companies. This extra line of defence provides protection to the many lives we insure on our books.
Let me haste to say that the risk of running out of money to pay claims in times like these is the purview of burial societies, church groups, family funds and other associations crafted by diasporans to help meet end of life expenses. This is why we encourage each other to get cover from insurance companies like Diaspora Insurance with the capacity and capability to pay claims come hell or thunder. If people have their existing groups, societies or associations that they have been contributing to, we can accommodate them on our books under our Group Scheme. This will ensure that their risk is now being carried by an insurance company while their members continue to enjoy the benefits of the group.
Darlyn Jay: How has the Diaspora Funeral Cash Plan (DFCP) made a difference to its clients during the pandemic?
SM: Firstly, we would like to express our gratitude to all the frontline workers who provided vital services during the heat of the pandemic especially the HEROES in the healthcare and social care sectors worldwide. Their sacrifice is unparalleled and we appreciate their commitment.
As soon as the pandemic started to wreck havoc across the world, governments responded by locking their borders; no flights in and out of many countries. These travel restrictions meant that body repatriation was not possible. This created a lot of challenges for many families that were on goods and services policies that only provide repatriation to Africa. All of a sudden you find that the policy that you have been paying for is no longer useful.
With Diaspora Funeral Cash Plan, we provide cash so that families have total flexibility be it repatriation, burial abroad, or even cremation. Diasporans are transnational citizens and their location and preferences tend to be fluid over time so a cash policy speaks to their needs and reality. During lockdown, many bereaved families were also caught in a lot of unplanned costs associated with prolonged burial delays, cancelled flights not to mention mandatory quarantining. All these unanticipated expenses were covered by the cash provided by Diaspora Insurance. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to see why our product is the best funeral cover for Africans in the diaspora.
We are also building relationships with healthcare associations of diasporans by supporting their programs targeted at their members affected by COVID 19. A lot of healthcare workers have been affected physically and mentally by the pandemic.
Darlyn Jay: In what ways has the pandemic affected Diaspora Insurance’s business?
SM: When the government stopped people from working in offices during the first lockdown, we had to adopt to working from home. We had to reconfigure our systems and processes by adopting new technologies. We are pleased that we continued to provide impeccable services to our dear clients during such difficult times.
Diaspora Insurance views themselves as a community-based institution and supports events like festivals, concerts, church and business conferences. These physical gatherings provide a good platform to market our services to our niche market. The restrictions to gatherings and movement meant that we were not able to do the physical activations as before. We have now focused more on online advertising and marketing, and this has been successful. Since the restrictions are beginning to loosen up, we are inviting diaspora organisations, churches, institutions, and groups that have exciting events on their calendars to get in touch with us.
Darlyn Jay: What are your views on vaccination?
SM: Let me put on my medical doctor hat so that I will be able to answer that controversial question. There is overwhelming scientific evidence that the vaccines against COVID 19 offer huge benefits compared to their risks. The vaccines have been shown to prevent serious disease and mortality (death) significantly in those that are exposed to the virus. Right now, more than 90% of patients in intensive care due to COVID 19 are unvaccinated and in some hospitals, 100% are unvaccinated. COVID 19 has some long-term effects that impact negatively not only at personal levels but the wider economy. Most people with long COVID are off sick for long periods leading to reduced productivity. The US and UK job markets are experiencing low labour force participation rates. Some economists are attributing this to people suffering from long COVID.
As a company, we encourage our people (blacks) to be vaccinated. Statistics show that there is lower vaccine uptake among black people. An Oxford research showed that 90% of the white population in the UK is vaccinated compared to 70% of the black population. In the US, it is even worse. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that of the people who got their first jab, 56% are white, 10% are black and 20% Hispanic.
Unfortunately, Blacks and Asians have the highest risk of not only contracting COVID 19 infection, but suffering from severe disease and even mortality. There are several socio-economic factors at play that drive this statistic. Many Blacks and Asians are in public-facing jobs like healthcare, social care and public transport. As you can imagine, all of these jobs cannot be done at home. Some of them live in larger households in urban areas with high population densities, increasing the chances of spreading the infection. Sadly, diseases like diabetes and heart problems that increase the risk of serious COVID 19 infection are more prevalent in black communities.
Based on these facts, we encourage black people to get vaccinated. When you get vaccinated, you are not just doing it for yourself but for your loved ones showing them that you care.
Darlyn Jay: As a company, are you worried that an unvaccinated black diaspora population leads to increased claims?
SM: Now you are being cheeky Darlyn. Like I mentioned before, Diaspora Insurance is well capitalised and has a strong reinsurance structure. Our message on vaccination flows out of our corporate social responsibility (CSR) philosophy. We want our black communities to be healthy; a healthy community leads to economic growth and stability.
Darlyn Jay: Do you ask people of their vaccination status on application?
SM: Our key product the Diaspora Funeral Cash Plan is a guaranteed acceptance policy. What it means is that we do not ask anyone any medical questions on application. Whether vaccinated or not, we accept clients on the same terms. Because we have a guaranteed acceptance on application, means that our application process is very quick. A guaranteed acceptance on application also means that the claims process is very quick. Within 4 hours of submitting the required documents, we pay out the most claims although on paper we say 24hrs.
Darlyn Jay: This concludes our discussion with Diaspora Insurance this morning. Thank you, Dr Sibert
SM: Thank you Darlyn and thank you our listeners. Please call us on the numbers provided to get a quote for yourself and your family. Let us give ourselves and our loved ones the guaranteed peace of mind they deserve. For more information on Diaspora Insurance
GN Radio is a London based online radio that focuses on the African diaspora community.
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