A clear and standardised currency and valuation framework is needed for insurance claim settlements under the ZiG regime, the Chartered Governance and Accountancy Institute in Zimbabwe (CGI Zimbabwe) has said.
This comes amid renewed calls for pricing discipline in the insurance sector, following the Insurance and Pensions Commission (Ipec)’s short-term insurance sector report released in March, which urged insurers to align pricing and deductibles with claims inflation and forex-linked cost pressures.
In an interview hosted by the Insurance Institute of Zimbabwe, CGI Zimbabwe chief executive officer and secretary Lovemore Gomera said Ipec and industry players must work together to eliminate ambiguity in ZiG-based claim settlements.
“Ipec and the industry must jointly develop and publicly communicate a clear currency and valuation framework for claims settlement under the ZiG monetary system, eliminating the ambiguity that creates valuation disputes,” Gomera said.
He added that insurers must clearly communicate the real value of cover at every policy renewal, ensuring sums insured reflect current replacement costs.
Gomera said the move would end the persistent problem of underinsurance, exacerbated by the currency environment.
He said trust deficits in Zimbabwe’s short-term insurance sector were well documented, pointing to Ipec 2025 data as evidence of persistent structural challenges.
Gomera said the two largest categories of complaints were: delayed settlement, which accounted for 35,2% of all complaints — the single largest complaint category —and the disputed claims and exclusions, which accounted for 34,1% of complaints.
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He said these trends reflected core weaknesses in the sector rather than isolated incidents.
Gomera added that repeated currency transitions over the years — from the Zimbabwe dollar to the multi-currency regime in 2009, followed by bond notes, RTGS dollar, Zimbabwe dollar, and, most recently, the ZiG introduced in April 2024 — had contributed to valuation uncertainty in the insurance sector.
“When a policyholder is not sure what currency their claim will be settled in, or whether the settlement value will reflect the replacement cost of their asset, their scepticism is economically rational, not a reflection of industry malpractice,” he said.
According to Ipec, insurance brokers reported gross premiums of ZiG4,16 billion in 2025, equivalent to US$156 million, while net brokerage commissions stood at ZiG608 million (US$23 million).
This represents a 3% and 7% decline, respectively, which the regulator attributed partly to exchange rate movements between 2024 and 2025.
