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AXA Gulf – one of the largest and leading international non-life insurer in the region – has announced the launch of a dedicated sales unit offering insurance solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises [SMEs] in the UAE. As per Dubai SME -an agency of the Department of Economic Development- SMEs represent 95% of companies in Dubai, contributes to 40% of Dubai GDP and employees 42% of Dubai workforce. This reflects the critical role that this sector plays in achieving and nurturing the overall development across diverse economic sectors. More generally speaking in the GCC region, SMEs starts to be perceived as an essential pillar for creating sustainable growth. At AXA insurance Gulf, we think we have an important role to play in the development of the SME customer segment, by facilitating SMEs’ access to credit, by educating SME business owners regarding risk management and by designing affordable protection plans. Therefore, understanding SME needs, change in market rules and trends is a priority to ensure delivering right products and services. This is why at AXA insurance Gulf we are continually investing in market research. In our latest survey, carried out this summer, we have interviewed more than 300 SME business owners from Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and northern Emirates; our goal was to understand SMEs and self-employed main risks, fears, concerns and needs. We were also looking to understand how we can improve our guarantees according to very specific needs and where we can raise risk awareness, importance of prevention and risk mitigation. The study revealed that only 11% of SMEs were fully confident regarding their insurance company. They still see obstacles with growing business and citing a lack of confidence, over-complexity and lack of knowledge of the importance of explicit insurance. All those barriers show major stumbling blocks for SME owners to obtaining adequate protection. The study also showed that SMEs often prefer to remain uninsured or underinsured as they are under the impression that their key risks cannot be covered. Jerome Droesch, CEO of AXA Gulf said, “We have created our dedicated SME unit because we need to address the lack of trust and change the perception insurance is too complicated and costly. The objective of the unit is to support & educate SME owners on risks through a specialized team of experts. This team will meet business owners in their offices and analyse their specific requirements to provide adequate prevention and protection measures. Finally, the team will regularly follow-up with SME customers and monitor the evolution of their businesses to verify their insurance needs continuously.” In addition, AXA in the Gulf will enhance the support to SMEs during their fledging year and beyond and this is will be achieved through a newly launched dedicated hotline that business owners can access for advice and information. The new SME business unit aims to provide consultancy and advisory services to SME business owners, and carry out risk diagnosis of the level of protection required for each business according to their industry and activity. AXA is also planning to launch shortly new products. This will considerably improve the scope of its coverage while offering essential and trouble-free protection adapted to the specificities of each AXA’s SME client.
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