Africa-Press – Eswatini. Lidwala Insurance Cover has paid money amounting to over E25 million to clients who were affected by the political unrest whose businesses or property were burnt or damaged.
Lidwala Insurance General Manager Alfred Madondo, when addressing the issue of Political Violence and Terrorism Insurance, said normally insurance policies that are issued on a day to day basis exclude political violence. He said war risks, and other political activity related incidents were all excluded.
“If you want that kind of cover you would have to write separately and at Lidwala we have that cover, we are selling that cover,” he stated.
Madondo said Lidwala has been selling that cover since 2015.
He said at that time, the country was quite calm and people did not see that much of a need for it because of the minimal risks.
“Most of the people who took up this cover were companies that were multinationals. Companies with international programmes took up that cover because wherever they operated they required that kind of cover,” the general manager stated.
Available
Madondo said political violence covers are not readily available for retail companies, adding that they sell it because they get capacity from the London markets and other specialists who write to them. “When we issue the policies we insure ourselves against that 100 per cent and other markets so obviously when there are claims those people are also involved in the assessment, so claims are not made overnight,” Madondo stated.
He revealed they paid Inyatsi about E5.6 million because it was written in the London market and another big company which is in Africa called Africa Special Risks. “It was a long negotiation process because we had to talk to London market hence these claims were not made overnight.
“In some cases they can even come from London to make assessments here,” the general manager stated.
He said they do have clients who have always had PVT cover. Madondo said during the unrest that erupted in 2021 these companies were affected and the claims paid were around E20 million. He also disclosed that the latest claim to be made was for Inyatsi which was E5.6 million.
“We are very confident that our policies do work as we have seen these ones being fully paid. We have not have any other claims as of now,” Madondo stated.
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