Short-term insurer brings relief to clients in hospitality, leisure and non-essential retail services under Contingent Business Interruption cover
Short-term insurer Santam announced this week that it will make urgent relief payments of up to N$30 million to those commercial clients that are not classified as essential services and whose policies include a Contingent Business Interruption extension.
Santam Namibia Chief Executive, Franco Feris, said Santam opted to offer the urgent relief in response to the financial distress faced by policyholders in the hospitality, leisure and non-essential retail services industries.
“The N$30 million disbursement equates to 70% of one months’ value of the sum insured for Santam’s policyholders in the identified industries. The one month is indicative of the period where most businesses were impacted by the restrictive trading environment imposed by the Level 1 lockdown. The 70% is based on the view that the businesses would have experienced variable expense savings during the lockdown. The relief payments will be set at a minimum of N$25,000 and a maximum of N$1.5 million for individual CBI policyholders,” Santam stated.
“We understand that the pandemic has caused devastation of individuals, businesses and the overall economy. We therefore decided to assist with a substantial contribution to help sustain our policyholders in the most impacted industries,” said Feris.
Small businesses that have policies with CBI extensions must register a claim to be considered for the relief insurance payout but large corporate clients are excluded due to the complex nature of insurance policies for such businesses.
Santam advised that to qualify for relief payment, the clients must meet the following criteria:
• Their policy must have CBI extension;
• The CBI extension must have been taken out before 18 March;
• The policy must still be in force;
• The client must have incurred a loss; and
• They must not be an essential service provider allowed to trade during the lockdown.
The short-term insurer said to date it has already contributed more than N$20 million in COVID-19 relief through premium reductions, premium refunds as well as direct support to insurance industry business partners, through corporate social responsibility and in support of government initiatives.
