With 160 employees, and just three vehicles, Sri Lanka’s sole re-insurance agency, the National Insurance Trust Fund (NITF) housed at the old CWE stores at No 70, D.R Wijewardane Mawatha, Colombo 10 works sans computers – a rarity in the modern world of business.
The state agency, which also provides insurance cover, handles manually substantial claims of around Rs.75 million per month without computer facilities protecting 1.3 million public and local Government service officials and their dependents from the problems they face such as health, private, accident, death and unexpected property disaster.
State sector employees pay only Rs 75 per month as the premium to obtain benefits through the Agrahara Insurance Scheme. The targeted annual revenue of the fund will be around Rs.65 billion by 2021, NITF Chairman Senaka Abeygunasekera told the Busines Times at his office.
The NITF plans to expand in to other countries covering all SAARC countries in the first phase. It will enter the re-finance sector in Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Pakistan and India, catering to the needs of the micro finance segment, he said.
Sri Lanka loses a significant amount of foreign exchange because 19 primary insurance companies in the country get their portfolios re-insured with foreign companies. He noted that his institution is ready to provide re-insurance facilities for these companies as well. A school for insurance will be opened in Monaragala next month to mark NITF’s 5th anniversary, to train personnel to fill vacancies in the industry. There is an urgent need for trained personnel to fill at least 4,000 existing vacancies in the insurance sector, he disclosed. NITF has paid insurance claims amounting to Rs.11.45 billion for 106,304 persons, last year.
The fund also implements a foreign employment insurance scheme for migrant workers. “In total we are catering to insurance needs of around ¼ th of the country’s population,” he said. The NITF has extended its services to the public with regard to the provision of all classes of general insurance requirements from September 1, 2009, he said. Insurance compensation amounting to Rs.252 million had been paid since 2008 up to now on behalf of migrant workers, and a sum of Rs. 160 million for entitlement claims. NITF has signed an MOU with the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau to implement this scheme. Mr Abeygunasekera added.
It has introduced an electronic card to facilitate efficient settlement of hospital bills shortly. The Agrahara Loyalty Card will be a novel feature in the medical insurance history. |
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