From teaching to funeral assurance

24 Jan, 2020 - 00:01 0 Views
From teaching to funeral assurance Mr Chomi Makina

The ManicaPost

Freedom Mutanda Business Correspondent
Teaching has always groomed people to be anything in life and a number of abinet ministers have a teaching background and even the late former president was a teacher it his early adulthood before venturing into nationalist politics.
Moonlight Funeral Assurance Society is a household name in the assurance business in Zimbabwe but some may be unaware that the man at the helm of the company, Mr Chomi Makina, is a teacher by profession who joined the occupation at a tender age of 22 before leaving to pursue other passion — insurance broking — and ultimately reaching the pinnacle of the profession.
The Manica Post (MP) caught up with Chomi Makina (CM) and the following are excerpts from the interview.

MP: Who is Chomi Makina?
CM: I was born in 1964 in Harare but grew up and did my primary and secondary education in Marondera. Later, I went to Marymount Teachers’ College where I earned a teaching qualification awarded by the University of Zimbabwe. That was from 1980-1984. I did my first year Teaching Practice at Tonhorai School near Birchenough Bridge. Mind you, in those years, one had to go for Teaching Practice (TP) twice. Hence, I taught at Kuhudzai and Dambakurimwa Primary Schools in my second stint on TP. After qualifying as a teacher, I was posted to the Mutare City Council owned Dangamvura School.

MP: What made you switch professions?
CM: From 1985 to 1986 I taught at Dangamvura Primary School but I was head-hunted by the Zimnat branch manager for Mutare. I had good communication skills, I guess, which he identified when he came to the school on an errand for his company. I was able to interact with various people with much ease. Of course, I hoped to get a loan to buy a car which became the driving force in my eventual decision to dump the chalkboard for a life in the insurance and assurance business.

MP: How did teaching help you when you decided to ditch the chalkboard?
CM: Confidence from my years at college and when I taught albeit briefly made me a standout performer in the insurance field. Of course, there are motivational theories from Psychology of Education which made me at home with clients. You should appreciate the fact that selling insurance is not a walk in the park. Teaching gives you the patience to deal with adversity. Even when one shows a high temper and do not have time to listen to insurance talk, that is when motivation theories come to the fore and teachers have plenty of patience.

MP: What do you think could have led to you being head-hunted?
CM: In those days insurance agents or consultants were regional education officers, education officers, heads or teachers. I was lucky to be identified and humbly went there to see if I could make it in the insurance business.

MP: For how long did you stay at Zimnat Life?
CM: After working for a number of years, the managing director of Progressive Insurance Brokers came knocking on my door and asked me to be the regional manager in charge of the Life Section of the broking company and that was where I learnt a lot concerning the Funeral Assurance product which I specialise in until today.

MP: What’s the difference between assurance and insurance in your industry?
CM: Insurance usually deals with short-term and concern eventualities which may happen or may not happen whereas assurance deals with eventualities that are definitely going to happen.

MP: How was Moonlight born? Tell us about the circumstances.
CM: I stayed at Progressive from 1990 to 1995 and on November 1, 1995, I co-founded Moonlight as a shareholder and Group CEO. I hold the position as I speak. When we started I didn’t have any capital and had to share the dream with my current chairman, Mr Grant Nakhozwe, who was reluctant at first because our business is taboo to most Africans. He provided the capital to kick-start the venture. At the time Doves Funeral Assurance was the largest company followed by Mashford’s and the two were white-owned. After a thorough market research, we realised it was easy to dislodge them. To take a slice of the market, we made sure we tailor-made products which appealed to the generality of the populace.

MP: Really? How did you do that?
CM: First, we found out they were not underwriting extended family members and as we came from the same background with intended beneficiaries, we knew how important for a mukwasha to bury an ambuya/tezvara as well as any other extended family member.
With the advent of AIDS, we found out that many people kept brothers’ children whose parents would have been victims of the dreaded disease and so we included them in the policies we were selling. Secondly, we made sure our transport service was from border to border and that appealed to our clients.
Thirdly, we spoke the client’s language and hence when it came to claims, it was easy for clients to speak to us.

MP: How did you come up with the company name?
CM: The moon contrasts represents each of our inner worlds, relating to unconscious emotions, spiritual desires and dreams. The moon offers us the ability to learn from the past and creatively unlock and express our future..

MP: Going forward, what are the plans you have for the company?
CM: We have gone regional and got an international reparation product for those in the Diaspora. We continuously partner with giants in the market to create products that are enduring and will continuously give customer satisfaction to our clients. We aren’t going to sit on our laurels yet as our goal is to conquer the world because of our enticing products.

MP: Looking back, have you been able as a company to reach your goals?
CM: Yes, according to the IPEC report of 2019, Moonlight has a 58 percent market share excluding Life Assurers and coming from a company with humble beginnings, it was a leap of faith that brought forth rich rewards.

MP: What is your last word to aspiring entrepreneurs out there?
CM: If you only believe and act on your belief, all things are possible. The catchphrases which have always guided me are: Dream! Plan! Do! If your plan doesn’t work, change the plan but never the Goal.

MP: Thank you for challenging everyone to dream big in order to achieve big.
CM: My pleasure.

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