Kathmandu. People strive to achieve success. And they work hard. However, not everyone achieves their goals. Because sometimes people make futile efforts. Achieving targeted success requires meaningful efforts. Success may not come easily in any work as expected. Even in such a situation, one should not get discouraged and continue to persevere. Anyone can achieve success with continuous efforts. Yes, Bishnu Prasad Sapkota is a person who has succeeded by breaking through many doors of futile efforts and carrying the burden of immense struggle to achieve his success.
Currently, Bishnu is the regional head of Citizen Life’s Balaju region. He monitors and supervises 8 branch offices in his region. Bishnu has been implementing the policy and legal provisions of insurance under his area by following them, ensuring that employees, agents and his team follow the instructions of the regulatory body, reporting, conducting training in various branches of his area from time to time to develop the capacity of agents and employees, striving to fulfill the company’s business objectives, and making work plans. Not only this, he has been conducting campaigns to increase insurance education and insurance awareness by visiting various places in his area to expand everyone’s access to insurance.
Born in 2044 BS in Bidur Municipality-6, Nuwakot, Bishnu’s childhood was normal. Born into a farming family, Bishnu studied hard and worked hard, working from morning to evening, doing housework. Even though he grew up in a family that worked hard from a young age, Bishnu never considered any hardship as a new opportunity and kept moving forward, despite all the challenges and hardships that came his way.
Currently, Bishnu lives in Balaju, Kathmandu. He completed his studies from LLC to Bachelor’s in his birthplace. Sapkota completed his master’s degree in Ruler Development and is currently pursuing another master’s degree in Management. A talkative and fearless person from a young age, Bishnu’s studies were good from childhood. He was considered a student who caught the eye of his teachers. From a young age, he would write and perform plays, poems, and ghazals, and conduct stage programs. He would earn money by conducting stage programs.
While Bishnu was studying for his bachelor’s degree, he wandered around a lot in search of a job. He used to come to Kathmandu from Nuwakot every day in search of a job. Carrying the Kantipur newspaper, he would look for addresses and make phone calls. He would search for a job all day in the dust of Kathmandu and would return home only in the evening. In this way, Bishnu spent many days wandering around the market hungry. Many days, Bishnu would eat 2-3 pieces of bread with hot water. However, he could not find a job in Kathmandu. Hungry for a job, Bishnu finally joined the teaching profession for 1 year from 2065 to 2066. Teaching was not his preferred field. Bishnu, who was looking for a good job, was told by his elder brother Uttam Pathak that a job had opened in the former Prime Life Insurance Company. Then Bishnu learned about the job. Bishnu also felt good when he understood and went for an interview and passed. He took up his responsibility as a branch chief in the former Prime Life Insurance in 2066.
## Then, in 2069 BS, Bishnu joined Nepal Life as a branch manager. He worked in Nepal Life for 8 years. After working for a long time in the same company, Bishnu wanted to move. In search of opportunities, he decided to skip Nepal Life’s journey. Even when he was in the previous Prime Life and Nepal Life, Bishnu always kept his branch in an excellent position. He even received the Emerging Award.
After spending 8 years as a branch manager in Nepal Life, Bishnu got the opportunity to work in a slightly different role in Citizen Life from 2076 BS. He joined Citizen Life as an Area Branch Manager. When asked by Insurance Khabar why did Bishnu, who has spent a long time in the old insurance sector, choose Citizen Life, a new company? He replied, ‘The company’s products, including timely, optional facilities, advance policies, managed team, employees, and many other things about the company attracted me. Citizen Life is a new company in name only, but in terms of work, it is a company that is moving forward by competing with the old ones. I am confident that this company will make good strides in the coming days as well. The company will always move forward by remaining dedicated to the interests of the customers.’
‘Insurance is a field of religion,’ said Bishnu, ‘Insurance is a field of religion, providing knowledge to everyone through education and awareness. Teaching good habits that saving someone will be good is also a religion. The company provides relief money at the time of loss, which is also a religion. I think insurance is a field of sacred religion. Just as it is believed that building a temple will bring religion, bringing insurance to every home will bring religion.’
Bishnu says that the understanding of insurance has become broader now than before. ‘Earlier, when I myself went to some place with an insurance literacy campaign, I was chased,’ he said, recalling the old days, ‘At that time, it was about the networking business. And at that time, when I went with an insurance campaign, people were attracted to the networking business, there was confusion about insurance. I went to a village with an insurance literacy campaign, and the people there chased me from that place. Yes, there is a big difference between the understanding of insurance at that time and today’s understanding of insurance. Even if people today do not have insurance, they try to understand it. That is a good thing. After understanding insurance, they do it one day or another. Getting an education is the biggest thing.’
Life insurance is better for all classes and strata, says Bishnu. ‘However, people from high-income families tend to ignore insurance. They say that money should come immediately after investing money, but after investing money, money comes in the insurance sector, but there is a lump sum, bonus and risk cover. They do not understand that. Similarly, due to their weak financial situation, they try to get insurance but do not have the money.’
Bishnu has argued that the middle class mostly understands insurance and tries to get it. ‘Rather than insisting on getting insurance for large amounts, we should try to bring even small insurances under the scope of insurance. “In this recession, it is not possible to insure a large amount of money,” he said. “The agent should also pay for that.”
Bishnu understands that agents tend not to participate in training. Bishnu says that they are the main characters of the company since they need to train as many agents as possible and send them to the market. “Therefore, agents should have a lot of knowledge and build their skills to sell insurance in the insurance market,” he said. “However, it seems that agents are not even trying to get training and understand.”
Urging the agents, Bishnu said, “The company will provide training to increase your capacity. Therefore, if you want to work in the insurance market and survive professionally in the insurance sector, then everyone should go to the insurance market only after receiving training. So don’t hesitate to get training.’
Bishnu suggests that agents should go to the market strong and competent. He emphasizes that the company should make agents competent by providing capacity building training from time to time. ‘There should be agents in the insurance market who can accept challenges. If there are such agents, the insurance market will benefit,’ he said.
Bishnu says that the insurance sector has been affected to some extent due to the bad work done by cooperatives in the recent past. ‘Some people try to link insurance companies with cooperatives. However, if you explain to them the difference between insurance and cooperatives, they will understand insurance,’ he says, ‘that is why it is still necessary to increase insurance literacy in Nepal.’
‘Life insurance is also the basis of every person’s savings,’ Bishnu added, ‘Insurance guarantees savings. The situation as it is today may not be the same tomorrow. That is why insurance is indispensable for everyone, as it provides security not only for today but also for tomorrow.’ He suggests that everyone should understand and explain when buying insurance.
He says that the statistics of the Nepal Insurance Authority also show that Citizen Life is leading the entire insurance industry in terms of claims as people buy insurance to get claims paid, get support when they are in trouble, and bear risks.
He has experienced that Citizen Life’s digital concept has made it easier to get and do insurance. ‘People’s trust has increased after going digital,’ said Bishnu, ‘Most of the transactions in Citizen Life are done through digital means. This makes it easier for the customer and the insurance company. Citizen Life provides excellent, advanced level training to employees and agents. Citizen Life is at the forefront of the insurance literacy campaign. The Authority also sees Citizen Life as a leading example in insurance literacy. The company has been emphasizing on new campaigns and is committed to bringing easy and simple plans to its customers in the coming days.
