Takaful Ikhlas Optimistic To Surpass RM520 Mln In Premiums

Bernama -- Takaful Ikhlas Sdn Bhd is confident of surpassing its initial target of RM520 million in contributions or premiums for the financial year ending March 31, 2009

Its senior vice president and chief operating officer, Wan Mohd Fadzlullah Wan Abdullah said Takaful Ikhlas expected to achieve a 20 percent growth in premiums due to greater awareness of Islamic based insurance.

"We are optimistic that we will surpass the RM520 million premiums based on our first three months positive performance this year. Based on that, we are already on target," he told Bernama in an interview recently.

According to Wan Fadzlullah, Takaful Ikhlas recorded RM428 million in premiums for the financial year ended March 31, 2008 with only six regional offices operating.

With the company's additional two regional offices which opened in the first quarter of the year, business is expected to increase and this will speed up premium collection for the year, he said.

To strengthen its position, Wan Fadzlullah said Takaful Ikhlas is opening another two regional offices namely in Putrajaya and Ipoh in the next three months and that will bring it to a total of 10 offices.

The two offices are expected to cost between RM600, 000 and RM1 million, he said. He said they would serve as the regional hubs catering to its agents and customers in their respective areas.

Wan Fadzlullah said the office in Putrajaya will serve government servants seeking collateral for their housing loans. Takaful Ikhlas currently has 16,000 policy holders who are government servants, he added.

Takaful Ikhlas other offices are located in Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru, Malacca, Sungai Petani, Kuantan, Kota Bahru, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu.

In order for Takaful Ikhlas to keep pace with technology advancement, Wan Fadzlullah said the company will continue to spend on information technology (IT) development.

"So far, we have spent close to RM15 million and every year we allocate a big chunk of our yearly budget into IT development in enhancing our capability," he added.

To support the increasing Internet penetration, Wan Fadzlullah said Takaful Ikhlas will be deploying more products online in the next one to two years.

Takaful Ikhlas, which currently has 600,000 policy holders nationwide, is keen to increase its number of non-Muslim customers, which is less than 10 percent at this moment.

He said the company was taking several measures to penetrate the non-Muslim market such as working with non-Muslim organisations and hiring non-Muslim agents in order to promote takaful products.