Zoom meeting to discuss Hollard Namibia’s issue of rejecting Business Interruption claims slated for next week
The Chief Executive of Insurance Claim Africa, Ryan Woolley has invited stakeholders to a zoom meeting on 17 March 2021 from 10:00 to 11:15 to discuss the issue of Hollard Namibia rejecting Business Interruption (BI) claims.
Woolley will be joined by the Na’ankuse, an Eco-tourism NGO that provides medical, ancient skills learning and critical upliftment support to the vulnerable San community.
The zoom meeting will focus on how, insurers have been refusing to recognise the validity of the Covid-19 BI insurance claims of tourism and hospitality business.
However, since courts in South Africa confirmed the validity of these claims at the end of 2020, insurers have agreed to settle these claims and begun making these payment to these devastated businesses.
In South Africa this included Hollard, however, Hollard Namibia appears to be an outliers, and despite the approach taken by its holding company, the wholly-owned Namibian subsidiary is not only refusing to recognise the BI claims of its tourism and hospitality policy holders, but is aggressively disputing their claims.
Two members of the San community and from Gondwana Collection will also join the zoom meeting. Both Na’ankuse and Gondwana will provide insight into the impact that non-payment by Hollard Namibian is having on the tourism sector, economy and the sustainability of vulnerable communities across the country.
Tourism is a critical sector in the Namibian economy contributing 15% to the country’s GDP. If you take into consideration the impact on related sector, its contribution is closer to 40%, it is a major employer, supports rural communities and consequently, any negative impact on the sector has significant impact on the economy, jobs and communities.
