Mozambique: EMOSE pays 380 million meticais to companies affected by Idai

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: EMOSE pays 380 million meticais to companies affected by Idai

2:26 CAT | 06 Sep 2022

FILE - For illustration purposes only. Beira after Idai. {File photo: Lusa]

The Mozambican publicly-owned insurance company, Emose, has paid 380 million meticais (about six million US dollars, at the current exchange rate) in compensation to companies affected by the tropical cyclone Idai that hit the central city of Beira City, in 2019.

Most of the companies insured by Emose in Beira City operate in the transport, trade, industry and logistics industries and saw their assets totally or partially destroyed by the cyclone.

At the top of the insured companies that received the largest amount of compensation there is Development Aid from People to People (ADPP), a non-governmental organization that operates in the areas of education, health, agriculture and welfare, receiving over 33 million meticais.

The information was revealed by the Chairperson of the Emose Board of Directors, Joaquim Langa, in an interview with AIM.

“In the case of Idai, we were the first insurer to show that we are on the side of the victims and we spent about 380 million meticais in compensation for those whom we insured. We paid 33.8 million meticais to ADDP because we insured a clothing warehouse that they had, and ADPP only had a premium of 700,000 meticais”, Langa said.

According to Langa, the loss ratio, which is the indicator that measures the values of compensation is around 25 to 30 percent, in line with the market trend over the past five years with the exception of 2020, when it rose to 46 percent with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Asked about the sentence in the case of the fatal accident on the main South-North Highway (EN1), in Manhiça district, that killed 35 people, Langa denied that Emose had any obligation to pay compensation. A court condemned not only the bus company involved and its driver, but also Emose, to pay joint compensation of 33 million meticais to the families of the victims.

Langa said this court decision should be regarded as null and void, since the bus company had allowed its policy with Emose to expire. At the time of the accident, the bus was not insured by Emose, or by any other insurance company.

“Emose always has in its business matrix the spirit that it is a people’s insurance company and that is why to meet the needs of society, we parceled out the insurance payments for the case of this carrier, violating market practices in which insurance should normally be paid upfront and not on credit. Even so the carrier did not pay and automatically the contract ceased to exist”, he said.

He also said that the company has no problem taking responsibility, and its track record shows that there is capacity to pay compensation, but “Emose is a company, not a charity, and the practice of the type of business in which it operates must always comply with rules and criteria.”

“People take out insurance so that they can be rescued. We have no problem in paying claims, we pay with pride to show that we have this capacity”, he pointed out.

Source: AIM