A pool of insurance companies operating in the country has offered a life-line support package to all factories built under the One-District-One-Factory (1D1F) initiative.
The package is to care take of all risks and uncertainties associated with the operations and activities of these factories running under the government flagship 1D1F program to reduce the financial burden that may arise as a result of natural disaster, fire outbreak among others.
The insurance pool created by SIC Life, Enterprise Life, Glico Insurance, Vanguard Assurance, Enterprise Insurance and SIC Insurance, will work closely with the 1D1F Secretariat and all promoters through a Broker, Safety Insurance Brokers, to ensure that every single project has the appropriate and adequate insurance cover.
The Managing Director of SIC Insurance Company Limited, Stephen Kwame Oduro, who revealed this at a stakeholder engagement on Insurance for 1D1F Business Promoters in Accra, yesterday, said the initiative they are embarking on is a national call to support the vision of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the transformation agenda of Ghana.
The exercise, the 4th of its kind, was put together to ensure the efficient operations, growth and sustainability of the factories being established under the 1D1F initiative.
“The 1D1F program is going to bring about massive construction, manufacturing and processing works across the country. These industries are subject to more risk and uncertainty than many other industries. The development of the various projects from inception to completion involves many phases with its varied associated risks. They also bring workers with different skills and interests together and involves the use of large and diverse set of equipment”, he noted.
He added “All these complex requirements have to be handled with proper co-ordination to provide a smooth flow of activities to achieve the objectives of the 1D1F program. Insurance will serve as the means of transferring and managing all associated risks with the projects and share the burden of paying the costs of a particular event, which reduces the likelihood of financial devastation to any project or promoter before, during the construction phase and the entire operation life of the 1D1F projects. This is to give all 1D1F promoters the needed security and safety for their factories, peace of mind to focus on their core businesses, reduce uncertainty of business losses and importantly ensure business continuation of all projects”.
On her part, the National Coordinator of the 1D1F Secretariat, Hon. Gifty Ohene-Konadu, said every business has to be contend with risks as they may be specific to a particular business or externally imposed by environmental factors beyond the control of the affected enterprise.
“Whatever it is, your success as entrepreneurs lies in your abilities to take calculated risks to safeguard your investments. Fortunately, the gathering here will help you identify, prioritize, assess and offer solutions to contend with whatever risks that confront your businesses”, she noted.
She added “with the support of the insurers, business people are able to free themselves of worries of business risks and to concentrate on pushing their businesses forward. The downside returns, fire, and uncertainties that haunt business progress; they have magical powers to arrest all these “abonsam”. With them as protectors of your businesses, you can go to sleep and be assured that when you wake up your business will not be pulled down to ashes. With the elimination of worries and miseries of losses arising from destruction of property, you as an entrepreneur will be free to channel your time and energies to devise strategies to achieve higher results, improve on the efficiency of management and workers and ultimately achieve maximization of shareholders’ profits”.
To her, possessing adequate insurance covers for various risks that could aid ones quest to raise facilities for expansion of existing companies or acquisition of fresh assets or even grab new ventures.
