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Protecting your business is our business

Business insurance coverage protects businesses from losses due to events that may occur during the normal course of business. There are many types of insurance for businesses including coverage for property damage, legal liability, and employee-related risks. We will assist you to evaluate your business insurance needs based on potential risks, which can vary depending on the type of environment in which your company operates.

Because no two businesses are alike, your insurance policy needs to be tailored to meet the specific risks facing your business. Business insurance policies are designed to allow maximum flexibility, enabling you to select the valuable assets and events you want to insure against.

This flexibility and choice, however, can give rise to complications if you do not have a good working knowledge of business insurance. Below is a high-level summary of some of the specific risks you can insure against and a few tips to keep in mind when setting up your policy.

Workers’ Compensation Insurance

Workers' compensation insurance is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her employer for the tort of negligence.

Workers Compensation Insurance is a compulsory insurance in Botswana and every employer must hold a workers’ compensation policy with a licensed insurer.

Tips:

Make sure you cover annual earning of all employees including managers and directors.

Fire and Allied Perils

Generally, the cornerstone of your insurance policy, this section insures your building, contents, machinery, and stock against defined threats such as fire, storm, earthquake, and damage.

Fire and special perils policy is an insurance contract that safeguards the your business against unforeseen contingency caused by accidental fire, lightning, destruction or damage caused by aerial devices, manmade perils in the form of riots, strike etc, natural calamities like storm, cyclone, flood etc, damage caused by impact by a rail or a road vehicle, peril caused by pollution and contamination, bursting and/or overflowing of water tanks, apparatus and pipes and leakage from automatic sprinkler installations.

Tips:

Make sure your ‘sums insured’ covers the full insurance replacement value. All insurance policies include an average clause which allows insurers to limit claim payments if your building, contents, or stock is not insured at full replacement value.

Business Interruption

Business interruption insurance (BI) (also known as business income insurance) is a type of insurance that covers the loss of income that a business suffers due to material damage

If you are unable to trade, you still need to meet your fixed expenses such as loan repayments, rent and wages. Business interruption insurance can supply you with an income stream to pay for fixed expenses and replace lost profits.

 
Tips:
  • Notify your insurer of your claim immediately.
  • Most BI policies will cover additional costs the business incurs to continue trading, with one of the more common “additional costs” typically incurred being rent at temporary premises. If there are a significant volume of additional costs being incurred to enable the business to continue trading, we recommend considering applying a flag or similar in the accounting system to enable the ready identification of these additional expenses to assess the claim.
  • We recommend maintaining a file with the key supporting documents to support the claim (e.g. copies of the BI policy, engineers’ reports, invoices, etc)

Electronic Equipment Insurance

Electronic Equipment Insurance provides coverage against unforeseen and sudden physical loss or damage to electronic equipment and data media.

Every policy is different, but make sure following three sections that are typically covered:
  • Repair or replacement of the equipment as a result of material damage.
  • Loss of and restoration of data media, including data stored on the equipment
  • Increased cost of working as a result of damage to the equipment

Theft

Loss of or damage to all contents (the property of the insured or for which they are responsible) of any insured building, at the insured premises because of theft accompanied by forcible and violent entry into or exit from such building or any attempt thereat or as a result of theft, or any attempt thereat, following violence or threat of violence.

  • This section excludes theft of money so cash must be insured separately.
  • The definition of theft also states that it is for business contents or stock and does not cover employees and customers’ personal items, such as handbags, laptops, and phones. So, ensure your insurance policy includes a sub-limit for employees’ personal effects.
  • You can insure your contents on a first loss basis. A first-loss policy is a type of property insurance policy that provides only partial insurance. In the event of a claim, the policyholder agrees to accept an amount less than the full value of damaged, destroyed, or stolen property.

Money

Money insurance protects your business money (which will include not only cash and cheques, but also items such as gift cards, postal orders and stamps) by providing cover for loss or damage to it whilst on your premises or in transit.

  • Make sure seasonal limits of your increased money holding is appropriately disclosed.
  • What’s typically NOT covered:
    • Caused by clerical or accounting errors
    • While being carried by professional money carriers, professional carriers, or common carriers
    • From any unattended vehicle
    • From any safe or strong room opened by a key or by use of a combination that are left in the building outside business hours.

Glass

Covers accidental or malicious damage to external and internal glass at your business premises. The policy can cover decorative glass displays and signs as well as windows and doors.

This section includes a benefit for damage to signs. If you have signs on or around your building, this cover is important because damage to signage is excluded from the Property Damage section.

Machinery Breakdown

Pays for the repair or replacement of electrical and mechanical production machinery due to sudden and unexpected breakdown. Common items include fridges, freezers, air conditioners and manufacturing machinery.

The Machinery Breakdown cover can also be extended to loss of product (raw material in process) which was being processed when the machine broke down and Deterioration of Stock in cold storage, following breakdown of the refrigeration equipment.

Contractor All Risks

A construction site is susceptible to various kinds of losses or damages. Any loss can mount from the theft, pilferage, legal claims and much more. As a contractor, it becomes necessary for you to comply with the deadlines, however, any risks can arise to disrupt the smooth functioning of the entire construction process.

This policy offers comprehensive cover by covering risks which may arise during construction. It comprises of physical loss or damage that may happen to the property, plant and machinery, temporary work erected on-site along with the third-party liability related to the work done on the site. It means, the policy covers works brought to the construction site for the purpose of the contract along with temporary work erected or constructed on-site. The policy also gives protection against losses or damages caused to property from fire under a Fire Insurance Policy which is also covered under contractor all risk insurance.

The sum insured available under the construction all risk insurance policy is decided on the basis of the nature of the project, sum insured, the tenure of the project along with the voluntary excess opted by the insured.

Property Damage

This section insures your building, fixtures and fittings against defined threats such as fire, storm, and accidental damage.

  • Make sure your commercial property is insured for full insurance replacement value. All insurance policies include an under-insurance clause which allows insurers to limit claim payments if your building is not insured for full replacement value.
  • Find a policy that has full accidental damage cover. It provides much broader coverage and can make a significant difference at claim time.
  • Make sure you factor in an appropriate level of cover for removal of debris. The cost to clear a site before rebuilding comes out of the building sum insured so if not included, could lead to the under-insurance clause being triggered. Also keep in mind the extra expense for removing asbestos material.
  • Notify your insurer straight away if your property is vacant. Most policies exclude cover if your property has been vacant for over 30 days.

Business Interruption / Loss of Rent

Covers lost rental income if you are unable to lease your commercial property due to an insured event such as a fire, storm, impact of accidental damage. This insurance is vital for commercial property owners as it enables you to continue to meet fixed expenses, such as loan repayments, in the event your property can’t be leased.

  • An under-insurance clause applies to this section, so make sure you are covered for your full rental amount.
  • Having some cover is better than none! You can adjust the indemnity period (the duration of the income stream) to help reduce costs.

Insurance for Professional

You are a professional and there is no doubt you are good at what you do. However, mistakes happen even with the most professional operators.

Professional Indemnity (PI) insurance is an important form of protection for businesses that provide specialist services or professional advice. It is designed to respond to claims against your business for losses because of actual or alleged negligent acts or omissions in the provision of your professional service or advice. PI Insurance will also assist with the legal costs associated with responding to or managing claims which are covered by the policy.

Professional Indemnity claims can arise from simple things like giving incorrect advice, a miscalculation, incorrect diagnosis, or treatment.

We currently have two professional indemnity schemes, as follows:

  • Professional Indemnity Insurance for Medical Professionals
  • Professional Indemnity Insurance for Accountants

Key Benefits of our schemes

  • Hassle free documentation
  • Specially designed for requirements of different professionals and professional services
  • Exhaustive coverage against different risks
  • Mid-term increase or decrease in the sum insured allowed

Cyber Liability Insurance

Cyber-insurance is a specialist insurance product used to protect businesses and individual users from Internet-based risks, and more generally from risks relating to information technology infrastructure and activities.

Professional Indemnity claims can arise from simple things like giving incorrect advice, a miscalculation, incorrect diagnosis, or treatment.

Almost all businesses depend on the following to operate smoothly:

  • Access to the internet,
  • Access to software and customer data that is stored in the cloud or a networked server,
  • Access to emails, and
  • An operational website.

While technology has enabled businesses to become more efficient, it has also created a new cyber risk that business owners need to manage.

Cyber Insurance can protect your business from financial loss following a cyberattack in the following ways:

  • Business interruption costs
  • Investigation and data recovery costs
  • Fines and penalties arising from investigation of a government regulator
  • Extortion costs
  • Crisis management costs
  • Privacy Protection – Third party claims from a failure to keep data secure

Contact me for More Information

Our Customer Care department is open Monday - Friday from 7:00 am - 6:00 pm. You are always welcome to send us an email using our contact form. Our friendly customer service will assist you every day during business hours.

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