The Sunday Mail
Business Reporter
INSURER Zimnat Group — 40 percent of which was recently bought by South African financial group Sanlam — wants to underwrite more business from companies that are beginning to recover because of Government’s 2016 import controls.
Zimnat CEO Mr Mustafa Sachak told The Sunday Mail Business at the official launch of new entity on March 29 that the business would actively pursue new opportunities provided by such policy interventions.
“We, as Zimnat, will follow where opportunities are and, as we speak, there are plenty of business opportunities in the manufacturing sector which is starting to improve since the inception of SI 64 (Statutory Instrument 64 0f 2016) by Government.
“Since then, there has been some activity in industry . . . Zimnat would like to take that opportunity of underwriting insurance for those companies that have resumed operations in industries.
“The other area which we intend to enhance is the SME sector as Zimbabwe’s economy is going informal. We are already offering insurance to the informal sector through our partnership with Telecel Zimbabwe, but we would like to enhance that insurance package so as to spread it to everyone who may be interested,” said Mr Sachak.
There are plans to introduce agriculture-oriented products in the medium-term to cover drought, floods, hailstorm and fire loss.
Zimnat, which has a US$92 million asset base, is expected to leverage on the expertise and experience of the US$58 billion Sanlam empire.
Said Mr Sachak: “Currently, we are number four in the insurance sector but given our massive partnership with Sanlam, we intend to be at the number one position in the next three years. Zimnat is associated with one of the largest groups, so when (clients) want to insure their life or want their money looked after by an asset management firm they know we will be safe.”
Sanlam has been in existence since 1918 and has footprints in 35 African countries. Through its 40 percent shareholding, Sanlam is expected to only participate in Zimnat affairs at board level. The remaining 60 percent is held by Masawara. Zimnat has four subsidiaries in life assurance, general insurance, asset management and micro-finance.
