Online Reporter
Nelson Gahadza
Zimpapers Business Hub
Old Mutual Zimbabwe says it is riding a wave of strong growth driven by a surge in customer acquisition, asset growth and improved banking business lines.
Group chief executive Mr Samuel Matsekete said the financial performance in the first half to June 30, 2025, exceeded expectations, but focus remained on sustaining the growth through continuous new customer acquisitions and investments.
“We continued to acquire more customers; hence, there is growth in the customer numbers across all segments.
“This meant that they brought additional business we were not accessing in the previous year, and we have also had contributions into our existing fund, looking at the life business and the asset management business,” he said in an interview.
For the half-year period, the group’s insurance operations saw solid growth, with the life business recording 80 percent real growth in revenue due to stronger underwriting volumes.
The banking arm achieved 9 percent real growth in non-funded income from increased US dollar lending and transactional activity, while the investment management segment grew funds under management by 4 percent.
Mr Matsekete said the company’s asset management business saw positive net client cash flows across all channels, including business, retail and pension funds.
He stated that contributions to the pension funds were strengthened by increased awareness among fund sponsors about the importance of contributing at appropriate levels.
“One of the challenges that we were facing before was that sponsors of pension funds would minimise contributions to just the bare statutory levels and sometimes constrain the pensionable salary basis.
“But there has been an enhanced understanding that there is a value in contributing at the right level and supporting post-retirement arrangements so that income replacement for pension scheme members is also improved,” he said.
Mr Matsekete highlighted that the banking business lines were contributing much more strongly than in the previous period through growth in transaction volumes, loan book and a reduction in the cost of funds.
“We grew our lines of credit to close the period at a limit of about US$160 million. It ranged between US$145 million and US$160 million during the period, with some getting to the end of the term.
“But that was a higher level than what we had because over this period, we organised an additional US$39 million in net lines of credit.
“Those were drivers from the banking and lending in that transaction volume, plus the lending of bigger lines of credit, which was in our favour in both interest income and transactional services,” said Mr Matsekete.
Additionally, he said there was also improvement in the quality of the loan book, saying the group would normally provide for credit losses if the loan book deteriorated, but it improved, which also means the group had a better quality to support the extension of credit, and the net revenues from lending were improved.
Mr Matsekete said the group’s new investments, Omari and funeral services businesses, are also showing great potential, with the Omari business seeing a 118 percent growth in transaction volumes year-on-year.
He said the company’s funeral services business also contributed to the growth of the life business through increased sales of funeral policies.
“The two businesses are the newest propositions in the group, and they are still at early stages, but are within the targets we set for the group. This is in terms of the journey towards registering profits and starting to generate positive cash flows. It is expected that when you are in newer businesses, you have more time to invest; therefore, we will continue to invest more into those businesses,” he said.
He said the group has expanded the footprint in terms of distribution agents for Omari and continued to invest in the infrastructure in the background.
“We enhanced the products and solutions that are available on the wallet itself, and we also continue to strengthen the capabilities, including our team, meaning we are still in the investment phase for Omari. On transaction volumes, year on year, it grew by 118 percent, and that gives you an idea in terms of the penetration rate of which we are penetrating the market. Another indicator is that the average revenue per user also grew, and it is above the industry average.”
In terms of the funeral services business, Mr Matsekete said the business brought more business into the life business itself, where it would underwrite the funeral policies.
“Again, it is ahead of our internal targets, and our rollout in terms of the footprint is also in line with our plan,” he said.
