Geoffrey Kihuguru, the founding, managing director of Lion Assurance, is on the move and although it's presently all hush, hush about his next posting.

Word has it that he is set to become the next Commissioner of Insurance, a much coveted post in the local insurance industry.

Kihuguru himself is hesitant on disclosing what he refers to as "moving to greener pastures" but yes, he says, he has vacated the Lion chair.Evelyn Nkalubo Muwemba  currently occupies the Commissioner's office in acting capacity.

With his replacement by George Alande, the former Jubilee Insurance Company deputy  managing director, Kihuguru leaves Lion with a firm foundation with room enough to make bold strides, which the company is known for, in the ever enterprising industry.

Meanwhile, Lion Assurance has boosted its present agency force of 10 after recruiting 30 new agents.

At a one day induction workshop held for the recruits at Hotel Africana last Saturday, the eager faces comprising university graduates, were taken through the basic principles of insurance as well as the rudimentary tools about salesmanship.

The people involved in the marketing and selling of insurance have stopped to be surprised when, on a day to day basis.

They confront members of the public and a good number of them confirm they knew little or nothing about the subject of insurance nor of  its benefits to almost all facets of human activities.

The recruits, though strangers in the industry, however expressed eagerness to take the bull by its horns and go out in the field to insure members of the public, their property as well as their liabilities.

Godfrey Buyondo, Lion's technical manager and one of the facilitators at the workshop, educated the new agents about several principles of insurance as well as explaining to them the pertinency of insurance to man.

He told them that although experience has shown that a majority of the people, knowingly or unknowingly, are their own insurers, almost every human activity/involvement can be insurable.

Buyondo disclosed that of all the different categories of insurance on the market, insurance of property is the type most  taken out by the insuring public.

Ngugi Maina, Lion's marketing manager under whose docket the agents fall, provided a soft landing for the recruits all of whom seemed overwhelmed by the onslaught of strange technical terms used in the industry.

He assured them that with implementation of several  company-sponsored training programes already in the pipeline, it will only be a matter of time and they will be the proud managers of their destiny.

Save for a token of facilitation an insurance company can extend to agents attached to it, the agents, also called intermediaries between the public and the insurance company.

Get their earnings from what they produce, a factor Didymus Mangwarire, the company's manager, credit, said was positive in itself for it drew several benefits especially in the meaning of an attachment to Lion Assurance.

Arming his new men and women in the trade, Richard Mwebesa, Lion's marketing officer, advised that they should never fear to be challenged by their prospects because when a prospect does that, it's one positive sign that he (a prospect) is softening on buying a product(s).

And, as insurers would wish to respond to a person doubting the worth of buying insurance, such a person should be told thus:

It's really not likely that your house, business or factory will catch fire, that your car will be in an accident, that you will be injured at work. Nevertheless, it this were to happen, it could be a disaster for you. blog comments powered by Disqus

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