By Tanyaradzwa Nhari
THE Insurance Council of Zimbabwe (ICZ) on Friday hosted the Annual Research and Development award ceremony with FBC underwriting manager Alwin Kopera clinching the top spot at the colourful ceremony.
Annually insurers and reinsurers in Zimbabwe run a research and development competition under which research is carried out on various matters and recommendations proffered for use by the industry.
Kopera won big for his research topic which was on embracing blockchain technology and enhancing underwriting efficiency in the Zimbabwe short-term insurance sector.
Obert Kwacha, an assistant underwriting manager at ZB Reinsurance took the second spot. His research topic was on the role of blockchain in insurance.
In third place was Brian Nyagwaya, a freelance insurance law consultant. His research topic was on the use of cyber insurance in mitigating risk in the financial sector insurance.
ICZ vice-chairman David Nyabadza said research was critical to find solutions to challenges bedevilling the insurance sector.
“The development and growth of the insurance business is based on finding opportunities and identifying solutions to challenges through research,” Nyabadza said.
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“Research and development is done for the sake of future risks that may arise, measures are researched, tried and implemented so as to note if they are effective. Future participants are encouraged to research far and wide with focus on technology advancement and product development influenced by the pandemics and catastrophes that have become frequent and with significant repercussions on business operations and consumer behaviour,”
Insurance and Pensions Commissioner Grace Muradzikwa, who was the guest of honour at the ceremony, encouraged the use of the research findings to solve any problems that arise as well as to improve the efficiency of the sector.
“As you may be aware, industry development is one of our key mandates and we believe that we can play an important role in this regard. We are equally alive to the fact that as an industry, you are moving with speed to research and introduce new innovations, which are subject to our review before they are introduced in the market,” Muradzikwa said.
She said there was a need for research to come up with innovative products that could be subject to the regulatory sandbox to ensure that the products are safe to be rolled out.
