Shoaib Javed Hussain is the CEO and Chairman of (SLIC) State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan and among a handful of highly qualified actuaries in Pakistan. A visionary Chairman, he holds MSc degree in actuarial management from Cass (now Bayes) Business School, City University, and London and is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries, UK. He began his career at an actuarial consultancy in Pakistan.

He has over two decades of management experience at leading global insurance groups and consultancies in the UK and Asia through global engagements across Europe, North America and Asia. Before joining SLIC, he held senior leadership and management position with a Hong Kong multinational insurance and finance corporation called AIA Group Limited.

Following are the edited excerpts of a conversation BR Research had with Shoaib Javed Hussain:

BR Research: Pakistan’s insurance penetration continues to be lower than one percent. How do you view this dilemma?

Shoaib Javed Hussain: It is true that the penetration rate of the insurance industry in Pakistan is disturbingly low. It is just 0.5 per cent as against the global average of 3.3 per cent. The insurance industry penetration rate in some countries is higher than the global average. We at State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan are trying our best to play our role in increasing the penetration rate of the insurance industry. It is challenging but we believe we can make the difference by first targeting and reaching the global average at least with our innovation, hard work, and efforts for digitalization and I would be glad to share that State Life Insurance remains the market leader – thereby, contributing more than 55 percent premium to Pakistan’s Total Life Insurance Industry Premium. Our total business market share in 2020 was 53 percent whereas in 2021 our total market share jumped to 58 percent.

BRR: How would you explain the impact of Covid on insurance business in Pakistan?

SJH: Before commenting on Covid and its impact on insurance sector in Pakistan, I would like to mention that I also experienced the Covid impact on the industry in Hong Kong. I was actually in Hong Kong before I joined as the Chairman and CEO of SLIC in March 2021.

The most shocking thing about the scenario when I was in Hong Kong was how quickly it got out of control. Businesses continuity was the biggest challenge as the Hong Kong government imposed strict lockdowns, and many staff was forced to work from home due to travel restrictions or were detained abroad.

In comparison, my experience in Pakistan has been a little different, perhaps because the pandemic had already been going on for a year when I arrived. Thanks to a sophisticated lockdown strategy, called the smart lockdown that allowed for the continuance of some economic activities, the industry in Pakistan was able to handle Covid situation better than most other countries.

SLIC’s focus has been to help consumers and policyholders during these unprecedented times and help them with payments of loans and benefits in a timely way. The pandemic also increased awareness around health and life protection investments, and thus it created opportunities for insurance sector to bring more accessibility, value addition and innovation in the sector. At State Life Insurance, this is exactly what we have been doing with introducing more and more digitally enabled insurance products. Our revival policy during Covid pandemic helped those who could not pay premiums due to financial limitations.

BRR: You talked about the revival of policies, how this provides relief to policyholders?

SJH: We started a revival plan towards the end of last year. This was especially launched due to the financial crunch faced by the policyholders during Covid-19 where we are planning to offer a late fee waiver for a prolonged period to facilitate the policyholders who could not pay their respective premiums. This way, the policyholders will be encouraged to revive their discontinued policies.

BRR: You were appointed only one year ago to transform this enterprise; how was your experience?

SJH: While these great accomplishments are the direct result my on time strategies and the exemplary due-diligence of entire work-force, the right strategic-direction was provided to them to inspire this resourceful corporation to compete in an increasingly complex industry. Capitalizing my global experience, we quickly managed to transform this enterprise, by nurturing talents, best-practices, and a cohesive culture in business operations.

BRR: Employees training is crucial for insurance sector. How do you keep your staff motivated and trained?

SJH: We have around 6000 regular employees and around 150,000 field force that consists of both men and women. And State Life is present across the country. So we take our workforce and their training very seriously. We train our people through a comprehensive human resource development program, consisting of different types of trainings and refresher courses at all levels, to enhance their technical, communication, leadership, office and presentation skills. In fact, not only just within State Life, but through our product innovation we are focused on introducing products that empower, protect and provide financial inclusion to the women and youth of our country; promoting their entrepreneurial skills to meet the requirements and challenges of the rapidly changing world.

BRR: How would you describe SLIC’s recent financial performance and its strength?

SJH: 2021 was an outstanding year for the corporation as we were able to continue the strong growth in premiums, core revenue, and agents. Meanwhile, our product portfolio and services also improved as I mentioned earlier to take advantage of the opportunity created by digitalization. We broke all the previous records of the financial growth and operational performance across both our life and health insurance business.

During 2021, we achieved many highs, and our growth was driven by product and digital innovation and a focus on policyholders’ experience. We paid the highest ever claims worth– Rs98.3 billion and also attained the highest ever policyholder bonus worth Rs85.65 billion. We achieved 100 percent growth in new business sales worth Rs71.78 billion, while the previous year’s figure was Rs35.91 billion; over 130 percent highest-ever growth in Health Business; and over 230 percent growth in Group and Pension Business, which is again the highest growth since the corporation ’s commencement. The Total Business Sales have grown by 36 percent, from Rs119 billion to Rs161.79 billion during the past year. I would proud to say that we are the only ‘AAA’ rated Insurer in the country and have a market share of 65 percent in conventional life. We offer Individual life coverage, Bancassurance, Group and Pension Life, Takaful and Health insurance services. In addition to this, State Life also owns Alpha Insurance Company Limited,, a subsidiary of State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan which is engaged in non-life insurance business comprising fire, marine, motor, health and miscellaneous.

BRR: Whom you will give the credit of outstanding performance in past year?

SJH: This outstanding performance has been achieved due to the dedication of our Executive Directors and Professional workforce, across our officers, staff and especially sales force cadres; as they pursued my innovative vision and competitive strategy of our dynamic corporate leadership.

BRR: Tell us how far ahead in digitalization are you?

SJH: Digital insurance and Insurtech, which is the use of technology in insurance transactions and processes is growing at an impressive speed in Pakistan. And we want to be ahead in this progress. State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan recently launched its digital portal and the mobile application. This has been achieved as part of our efforts to increase our digital footprint. The app and the digital portal allow you to register, buy policies and pay premium. We want to expand beyond the conventional insurance and we have plans to go further into digital transformation to benefits from the growth, customer satisfaction, and loyalty it offers.

BRR: SLIC has launched many new products during past one year and among them one is Golden Endowment Plan. What exactly are these new products?

SJH: SLIC has deployment of innovative solutions, like: A Digital Portal for Life & Health Plans and New Products, Health-App, Policyholders-App, E-Office Management System and Automated ‘Complaint Management System’, these initiatives have transformed the corporation , enabling round-the-clock responsiveness and cellular accessibility, on-the-go. This way, the corporation is pursuing; operational excellence, complete regulatory-compliance and transparency.

Also, we have introduced Golden Endowment Plan, which is a unique savings and protection scheme that offers insurance coverage of 20 years while only paying premiums for the first 7 years. The benefits and bonuses payable under this plan are based on the coverage years of 20 years and the policy will continue to participate in State Life’s surplus even after the premium payment term of 7 years. The bonuses announced for a 20-year endowment plan are applicable for the Golden Endowment plan.

Our new product ensures coverage to every segment of the society. An advantage to this plan is that the insured person also gets life coverage along with an opportunity to build a living for a financially secured future. One of the major reasons why one should buy Golden Endowment plan is that it does it offer up to 25 percent discount in premium amount as compared to normal endowment plan. In our existing endowment plans, maturity value is around 3.69 times; whereas in Golden Endowment, maturity value is 4.36 times of sum assured and we foresee, which can grow up to 5 times in future on basis of our current growth rate.

BRR: How can Pakistan overcome its dire leadership crisis which is seriously impeding its progress?

SJH: In the light of my practical experiences and observations in various countries, I can say with utmost confidence that Pakistanis can be counted among the most talented people in the world. As a universal recognition of their unique talents, they are being offered leadership roles in the corporate as well as non-corporate organizations throughout the world. Unfortunately, on account of the massive brain drain taking place in Pakistan for quite some time, we have been unable to benefit from the remarkable leadership qualities of our fellow countrymen, who have been performing so well in their respective fields all over the world. I believe that our government and corporate sector should join hands to create a conducive environment in which our highly talented expatriates can feel physically and financially safe and secure to come back to take this country on the road to progress through the maximum utilization of their experience and leadership skills.

Similarly, Pakistan has some fine universities across sciences, arts and business fields. A program that may help retain the talent of our youth as they graduate from these universities is key.

BRR: What collaborations SLIC has made in past year and what is the way forward?

SJH: SLIC has entered into collaborations with several e-commerce ventures and made strategic partnerships with Pakistan’s leading banks, to promote financial-Inclusion & Digital-Economy to insure the Uninsured’ people in Pakistan. SLIC is now serving more than 140 million citizens all over Pakistan, for the wellbeing and financial security of the masses. Several strategic partnerships are formalized for future sustained growth. In addition, SLIC is about to rollout 7 new products within the next few months catering to different needs of every Pakistani.