BY MTHANDAZO NYONI
ZIMBABWE’S insurance sector should design products that respond to the changing needs of farmers and their suppliers, Zimnat CEO Mustafa Sachak has said.
Commenting on the underwriting agreement between his organisation and THI Insurance, Sachak said there was need to design insurance products that suit Zimbabwean farmers.
“Agriculture requires a completely different approach to designing insurance products that respond to the changing needs of the Zimbabwean farmer and their upstream and downstream service suppliers. THI, Zimnat and Santam Agriculture have the resources and determination to respond to this demand,” Sachak said.
The two organisations entered into an underwriting management agency agreement which would result in THI being underwritten by Zimnat, in conjunction with Santam Agriculture, through Zimnat’s shareholder partnership with Sanlam, the largest non-banking financial institution on the African continent.
The agreement, which came into effect on January 1, 2019 would enable Zimnat to leverage off THI’s agricultural insurance heritage and expertise, while THI would ultimately become part of the much larger Zimnat/Sanlam Insurance Group.
Sachak said THI had an 80-year heritage of agricultural insurance expertise, a market presence and brand reputation that would give Zimnat and Santam Agriculture immediate access to a sector of the insurance market that has pledged to assist in the resurgence of agriculture in Zimbabwe.
Sachak said THI would, in return, become part of a much larger insurance group with an A security rating, coupled with international backing of the Sanlam/Santam Group, which has a triple A rating.
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“Santam Agriculture, a specialist division of Sanlam, has developed technical assistance and state-of-the art agricultural insurance services, using worldwide and regional research, backed by leading international reinsurers. All these resources will be made available to assist in developing unique risk management and transfer solutions that the Zimbabwe insurance market can offer to its clients,” he said.
Zimnat general insurance managing director Stanley Mazorodze said the partnership would bring competitive advantage to both THI and Zimnat.
“This powerful combination of experience, skills, resources, security and brand heritage would bring significant competitive advantage to THI and Zimnat, and this will translate into better service and enhanced product offerings to our broker and client relationships,” he said.
“This is a really exciting development for the Zimbabwe insurance industry and will prove to be of immense benefit to the economy at large and more specifically, the agricultural sector. We look forward to rolling it out over the next few months and adding more value to our relationships with brokers, clients and all elements of the agricultural industry chain” he said.
