Dear List Participants,
This reply was drafted in response to a posting of the problem on
another listserve ...... maybe it can be helpful in this arena.
INSURING TELECENTRE EQUIPMENT
This is an area where we have not been well served by the prevailing
official development assistance (ODA) community and the public sector
model for development investment. Government and the public sector has
little concept of the value of its assets, the balance sheet of their
operations and the financial management dimension of development and
sustainable business.
In my past I was responsible for "risk management" for a US based
business with operations in 26 countries around the world. There was no
US insurance company that would insure our international assets at a
reasonable rate, and I suspect that the situation is even worse today
than it was some years back. Our solution was to "self insure", in
effect creating our own "insurance fund". We expected to lose one way
or another around 2% of our assets every year ....... so we charged
ourselves a premium of 4% a year on the replacement cost of the assets.
Our insurance fund made a profit, because we also worked very hard on
reducing our losses by prudent management. If my memory serves me right,
our actual losses were usually less than 1%. We considered the fact
that we were operating in 26 countries to be a major factor in our
abilitity to self insure because, in fact, the risk was substantially
reduced because of the multi-country spread of our operations.
We also recognised that it was possible, but not likely, that there
might be a real catastrophe and we would lose, say 50% of all our
assets. This would, of course, wipe out the company, and though
unlikely was a risk we were not prepared to take. We arranged with
Lloyds in London for reinsurance so that in the event of a very big
loss we could claim against the bigger insurance pool represented by
Lloyds. We paid a modest premium for this resinsurance. We never had to
make a claim so it was good business for Lloyds. We had protection from
calamity.
If there is an interest in putting an insurance pool together along the
lines of this outline, I would be please to take part in its
coordination. It seems like something that should be done. The Nakaseke
telecentre should be a wake up call to us all.
With regards
Peter Burgess
______________
T. Peter Burgess
President and CEO
AfriFund Management Limited
1173A Second Avenue #221
New York NY 10021
Tel 212 772 6918 Fax 707 371 7805
website: www.afrifund.com or www.profitinafrica.com
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Geoffrey Williams wrote:
> Regarding the recent burning of Nakaseke telecentre:
> It was proposed at the time, and many people have
> suggested it over time, that telecentres purchase
> insurance. But we are finding it very difficult to
> find affordable insurance for telecentres, especially
> when they are in several different countries, and in
> poor communities.
>
> Does anybody know of an affordable way for a
> non-profit to insure technology equipment in locations
> that are "off the beaten path"?
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