Learning from Others – Insurance and COVID 19 Effects to Businesses

• May 2, 2020
• LUTAKOME
• 3 comments

There is no doubt that the disruption to businesses as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic is quite unprecedented in our lifetime.
Looking at the available opportunities in our own town and how people make a living, one can only imagine how agile we have to get to survive through the rest of the year. Right from that taxi conductor who collects the fare to night club bouncer, that tour guide at the source of the Nile, to the multitudes who show up at any of Kampala’s betting houses to tap into this countries resources and all related business opportunities whose chances of thriving largely depends on large crowds.
If there is one thing I believe Ugandans are the best at in the world is the agility to push forward in the midst of changing business landscape through innovation. I have no doubt that given good health, it will just be a matter of time before suitable alternatives are derived from unexpected sources.
That said, I would like to share a story of a business that has survived through this crisis by just taking out the right insurance policy for their business.
In November 2002 there was a corona virus outbreak from China’s Guangdong province known as “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome” which was abbreviated SARS, to be precise SARS-CoV-2 and although it wasn’t a pandemic, over 8,000 people were infected with over 750 losing their lives.
The organization am talking about specializes in organizing an annual event and in 2013 they took out an insurance plan to shield against the adverse effects a pandemic benchmarking on the effects of SARS-CoV-2 with a particular foresight on the effect to business if such an outbreak would result into a pandemic leading to cancellation of an annual event.
An annual premium was paid for this insurance policy and although the fruits of this expenditure were not redeemed for over 17 years, the payout received this year following the cancellation of the annual event scheduled for next month is way higher than what has been paid over the years in insurance premiums.
The event in question of course is the Wimbledon Grand Slam tournament and much as the fans and players will miss out on the thrill, the organizers will not miss the monetary benefits of organizing a successful event.
The same kind of peace of mind can be extended to your business to ensure that the emerging issues do not affect the financial standing of your business.