Chronicle Editor
Sikhulekelani Moyo, [email protected]
ZIMBABWE Stock Exchange-listed insurance company, Fidelity Life Assurance Group, is retracing its footsteps back to Bulawayo where it sees growing investment attractiveness with huge business potential through the creation of strategic synergies and participation in different developmental projects.
On Friday, the company held its market re-engagement cocktail in the city where it met with different stakeholders to discuss business, and declared its readiness to be a key part of Bulawayo’s transformative journey, and that of the rest of the southern region.
Fidelity Life group managing director, Mr Reginald Chihota, said the company was back in Bulawayo to retrace its roots as it started operating in the city in 1932.
At that time, it was trading as Legal and General before it rebranded to Fidelity Life in 1988 and later expanded to Harare.
Unlike in recent years when a dark cloud hung over the second largest city following the closure and relocation of big industries predominantly owned by whites, whose departure fatigued overall economic performance, Bulawayo is now a prime investment destination again, offering numerous business opportunities.
Riding on enhanced doing business reforms under the Second Republic, the city’s industrial activity is on rebound mode, driven mainly by the few surviving corporates who have remodelled and diversified their operations, as well as the huge base of forceful small to medium-scale enterprises that now command huge footprint across sectors.
Demand for industrial and commercial space is growing with property owners bending to the need for partitioned workspaces as more entrepreneurs come on board.
Mr Chihota said coming back to Bulawayo and meeting key stakeholders is critical in establishing synergies for further business growth and tapping into different projects such as housing, micro-finance, and medical aid, among others.
“The purpose of us coming here with all our subsidiaries is to reaffirm the commitment that we have as Fidelity Life that we are really serious in terms of engaging not only Bulawayo but the southern region.
“So, you will see as we go on that we are coming back to our roots in a meaningful way in terms of philosophy where we will be giving out products and services that are impactful to the community and even to households,” said Mr Chihota.
“The things that we will be focusing on include housing development and we have partners that we will be working with to come up with affordable housing and we want to work with city fathers in terms of student accommodation.”
He added, Fidelity wants to contribute to addressing issues of water reticulation and solar projects to complement Government efforts.
“Through our engagements with other stakeholders, we are already active in the South African market and we are having a lot of inquiries from the sons and daughters from Bulawayo working in South Africa who are looking for bankable projects that they can invest in,” he said.
“We are excited to be back home and we are looking forward to progress in the Bulawayo development agenda.”
Fidelity Life is a holding company providing products and services for life assurance, employee benefits, asset management, medical insurance, funeral assurance provision of actuarial services, and residential property development. This includes managing pensions, funeral insurance, and microfinancing in the informal banking market. It also offers additional products for individual loans, salary-based loans and loans for farmers.
In a speech read on her behalf by deputy director Mrs Gladys Zizhou, Bulawayo Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister, Judith Ncube, applauded the initiatives by Fidelity Life to offer affordable services to the community and she pledged her support to the group.
“Let me assure Fidelity Life Assurance Group that Bulawayo Metropolitan Province is ready to do business and my office is pledging unwavering support to the group in their endeavour to service the southern region community,” she said.
“I have been advised that Fidelity Life Assurance Group has done a lot in developing affordable customer-centred products.
“To complement their efforts, I will avail my office to be a gateway in accessing other strategic offices they may need to further their interest in Matabeleland.”
The minister said the Government takes the re-engagement and engagement drive seriously as it positively impacts the socio-economic development of the citizens.
She said this move by Fidelity Life is also in line with the national vision of achieving an upper middle-income economy by 2030.
Meanwhile, Fidelity Life has said the US Government’s partial lifting of the Zimbabwe sanctions programme in place since 2003 will open an opportunity for further engagement with the global community. The group said the pronouncements by several Western governments indicating some easing of restrictive measures on Zimbabwe and their call for foreign businesses and financial institutions to have a new look at Zimbabwe’s markets are causes for optimism. – @SikhulekelaniM1
Online Reporter