True liberty for Basotho!

Lemohang Rakotsoane

MASERU – INSURANCE giant, Liberty Life Lesotho, was officially launched in Lesotho on Tuesday with a promise to provide greater financial freedom for Basotho.

Liberty Life Lesotho is a specialist life insurance company that provides group and personal risk insurance solutions.

Speaking at the launch, the Managing Director of Liberty Life Lesotho, Makhakhe Maliehe, said they will incorporate in their programmes SMMEs which have often been overlooked in the past.

He said the tendency in the insurance sector is to dismiss the poor arguing it is too risky to provide services for households in rural areas.

“We have built solutions to provide services to urban and rural areas in a cost effective manner,” Maliehe said.

He said their mandate is to steer people to financial freedom means they will seek “to guide clients to financial freedom as a GPRS would guide one to their destination”.

Maliehe said Liberty will ensure they provide a wide variety of products and engage in robust financial education initiatives to achieve financial literacy and inclusion.

Liberty’s Group CEO, Thabo Dloti, said Liberty operates on the understanding that financial freedom is possible for Africans.

He said Liberty does not seek to be the biggest but the most trusted insurance company adding trust plays a huge role in the lives of individuals.

Dloti said the issue of providing sound advice is at the core of their business as they cannot make an impact in people’s lives without providing them with sound advice.

Speaking at the official launch, the Central Bank of Lesotho (CBL) Governor, Retšelisitsoe Matlanyane, said the insurance sector in Lesotho is growing not only in terms of the assets that it holds but also in terms of the number of firms.

She said the country needs competition if companies are to provide innovative and varied products to locals at competitive prices.

“We need competition in this sector, we are currently faced with a challenge of a lack of innovation in this sector hence Basotho cross borders to seek better investment opportunities,” Matlanyane said.

She added that in the quest to find better opportunities Basotho end up falling into the hands of unlicensed brokers who cheat them of their money.

“I advise you to have suitable products for this market at affordable prices,” Matlanyane said.

She said Liberty’s promise to involve SMMEs is a noble initiative as SMMEs are usually side-lined because they are considered riskier.

“We are in need of that for SMMEs because insurance companies seem to prefer big companies, forgetting that SMMEs create a lot of jobs hence they are in need of security insurance,” Matlanyane said.

Liberty Life Lesotho is a subsidiary of Liberty Holdings, a growing African financial services company with a presence in 18 countries.

Matlanyane said there is need for a financially literate community that can make informed decisions and not be taken advantage of.

She asked the Liberty head office to ensure that skills are transferred to Basotho so that they can also be able to secure higher positions within the company.

She also indicated that the Liberty group should let Liberty Life Lesotho do its job.

“Know that there is a difference between Liberty Life Lesotho and the Liberty Group, cut that umbilical cord and let the local people do the job that I have entrusted them to do,” Matlanyane said.

She emphasised that accountability is very crucial in this sector.