Historically insurance in South Africa has been viewed as something only the privileged can afford. Products developed within the sector and sold to the public have for too long been blanket solutions in a country and continent where one size doesn't fit all.

Sadly, in so doing, many were left by the wayside without any solution on how to protect their most prized possessions.

If insurance is to stay relevant, it must find the unspoken need, the hidden asset and its value. Search the corners and crevasses for the forgotten and overlooked and find out what their deepest needs are.

Everyone has something valuable to protect. Not all things of value are as obvious as life or health, or as materialistic as houses and cars. Therefore, there is no one size fits all. At some point the insurance sector might have to look at ways to personalise their offerings to meet the needs and pockets of individuals.

Take for example the statistics revealed by the Automobile Association in 2018, of about 12 million cars in South Africa at that time, 70% were uninsured. The critical insurance practitioner should have already asked, why?

If people can afford to buy and drive cars, why can they not afford to insure them? Can they actually not afford to insure them? What are the trends? What does the data say? And most importantly, what is the solution?

Various reasons were provided by South African drivers for not insuring their vehicles including affordability and a genuine belief it was not a need.

For so many insurance has been a necessity that has been out of reach, be it through lack of understanding its purpose or lack of funds for premiums. It is time for our continent to rise to the challenge and create innovative products and solutions for the uninsured.

We need to find ways to redesign western products to suit African markets and in so doing lead the markets in which we exist. An understanding of the climate should also come with an affordability assessment when developing products. Insurance should indeed be for everyone.

Together we can open up this industry in profound ways. But it will take collaboration. Combined, the expertise sitting in various competitive companies in the local insurance sector are mammoth – put together they could create the unimaginable. When the bottom line is put aside, and the customer is placed front and centre, it has always been found that either way, the bottom line benefits.

Client-centered innovative solutions that are in keeping with the needs of a specific population could go a long way towards decreasing the number of uninsured people.

Innovation today is synonymous with technology, which is the direction in which the world is going. In order to insure the uninsured, we must have a hunger to keep abreast of the technological world, to upskill ourselves to the benefit of this industry and its customers.

Africa has immeasurable opportunities. However, in the past we have used products developed in other continents and sold them to our markets. While this was okay while we were still learning, the industry has grown tremendously in the past decades and I think we can eventually hold our own while learning from those continents on the front line of insurance.

Having other continents take the lead gave us the advantage of learning from their experience and expertise. It also allowed us the time to find our unique points and assets, the things that matter most to our target markets, and use tried and tested mechanisms to improve the lives of our people. Now that we have gathered the know-how, it's time to use it to address the issues.

Insuring the uninsured means we must first find them, educate them, and then tailor-make products that meet their needs before trying to recruit them into a system that has alienated them for so long. In so doing, we may find that none of our existing products cater for these individuals – through the gathering of data we need to allow the customer to dictate to the industry what they need.

At any given point insurance should improve the lives of people, provide relief and peace of mind. Knowing that losing our assets can be mitigated provides relief to live life to the fullest. The South African insurance industry can provide this for its people. We will need to roll up our sleeves, but we are well suited for the task.