Great Eastern to recruit 1,200 more Malay agents to boost takaful business

KUALA LUMPUR: Great Eastern Takaful Bhd (GETB) is confident of recruiting an additional 1,200 Malay agents this year to boost its takaful business.
CEO Zafri Ab Halim said the agency channel remains the takaful operator’s main business channel. Of its 6,000 agents that can push both conventional and takaful products, 2,400 are Malay agents.
“We want to grow our number of agents. We need to have more Malay agents in promoting this takaful product. It’s easier for agents to promote (takaful) when they’re Muslim,” he told a press conference after the Great Eastern Berjaya Bersama brand campaign and winners announcement here yesterday.
Besides focusing on the agency business, GETB also has the bancatakaful channel and group business.
“Unlike last year where we still don’t have a product to promote our group business, this year, we have a complete suite of products under the group business,” said Zafri.
In its brand campaign, GETB’s two areas of focus are the launching of its new logo and to increase the awareness and understanding of takaful among the public, especially the Malay Muslim community.
“We need to educate the public, especially the Malay Muslims to have takaful coverage.”GETB is now in its sixth year of operations and its contribution to the Great Eastern group is still small, but continues to grow double-digit due to its smaller base compared with the takaful industry’s single-digit growth expected this year.
He said GETB had made a profit in 2013 but fell into the red again due to the challenging environment.
“In Malaysia especially for the takaful business, there is a lot of changes with the new tax law, new (life insurance and family takaful) framework that will sometimes impact the bottomline because you need to do some investments,” explained Zafri, but noted that GETB will be profitable eventually.
With 400,000 policyholders, GETB’s market share stood at 6.1% as of June. He said GETB is working on its IT system, which will be ready in late 2017 or early 2018, to offer takaful products online.