InsurTech start-up Hefazat Technologies

With over 300,000 members across Pakistan, the Voice of Customer (VoC) group on Facebook has emerged as the voice of the voiceless disgruntled customer, according to a press release. With posts ranging from all post-purchase experiences, the group represents the weaknesses gradually eroding local trust and consumption from Pakistani companies.

One of the most common issues in the group revolves around insurance companies and the pestering post-inquiry calls, including the total absence amid claims. With mainstream media ordered to suppress any stories about their advertisers, customers are left to air their grievances with public platforms where everyone has a voice.

To capture a larger share of the emerging population of digital natives, Pak-Qatar General Takaful Limited and Salaam Takaful Limited recently partnered with insurance technology (InsurTech) market leader Hefazat Technologies to introduce new products to give customers more flexibility in acquiring takaful to protect their purchases.

The business is launching in Pakistan in mid-November amid a rise in mobile snatchings, according to several hundred reported incidents on the VoC group on Facebook.

Shell celebrates 75 years in Pakistan

Being the oldest energy company in the country, Shell Pakistan hosted a ceremony to celebrate its 75 years in Pakistan, together with its employees, partners, industry leaders, business professionals and academia, according to a press release. The ceremony also included Shell Tameer Awards 2022, a nationwide contest to recognize the best and brightest young entrepreneurs in Pakistan. This year, over 250 applications were received for the awards program and 30 finalists were shortlisted in six award categories. Since its launch in 2003, Shell Tameer has strengthened local economies by promoting entrepreneurship. A million youth have been engaged through this program.

Launch of Best Western Plus

MGC Real Estate and Best Western Hotel Group conducted their inauguration ceremony last week in Islamabad for the launch of Best Western Plus in MGC Jewel, located in Lake View Junction, Bahria Town, according to a press release. Best Western Plus is a four-star hotel chain from the USA. Meanwhile, MGC Jewel is a 24 kanal, 26-storey residential-commercial complex in Bahria Town, Phase 8, and it is going to become the biggest project in Bahria Town in the coming years.

Customer-driven marketing

Allied Bank Limited has entered into a partnership with D-engage to launch a unified platform for customer-driven marketing. According to a press release, D-engage solutions will integrate with all customer communication channels of ABL for event-based personalised communication with target audiences based on data intelligence. Speaking on the occasion, Chief Digital Banking Mr Sohail Aziz mentioned, “everyone is annoyed with the increasing number of marketing messages which are counterproductive most of the time. We are pleased to partner with c to replace bulk messaging with event-based engagements based on data intelligence. This will improve our customer engagements and bring cost efficiency.”

Digital career consulting

Smart Sindh has become the first digital career consulting platform in the province to mentor the youth on the basis of “what, how, why and where,” according to a press release. This platform fully guides the students of Sindh, especially fresh graduates aspiring to make a career. Waqas Qadeer, the founder of Smart Sindh, says that the purpose of Smart Sindh is to positively impact millions of people of Sindh through the strategic use of existing resources. “By next year, at least 10,000 students from Sindh would have benefitted from Smart Sindh.” Smart Sindh provides free career bank access to all members based on industry-specific knowledge from more than fifty professional fields.

MMBL’s agenda for financial inclusion

Pakistan’s largest digital bank, Mobilink Microfinance Bank Limited (MMBL), has recently launched the second edition of its nine-point agenda for financial inclusion, a policy document aimed at fostering digital financial inclusion through meaningful regulatory interventions in nine key areas, according to a press release. The 9 Point Agenda for Financial Inclusion 2.0 highlights key challenges and opportunities across multiple sectors, with diversity and inclusion at the heart of it, and offers a set of high-level policy recommendations to draw focus toward initiating positive change across these sectors.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, November 7th, 2022