Online Reporter
Tawanda Musarurwa
FINANCE, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube has called on Zimbabwe’s insurance and pensions industry to extend its reach to underserved communities, warning that financial protection must not remain the preserve of a privileged few, as the Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC) marked its 20th anniversary with a gala dinner and charity ball in Harare on Friday.
Speaking as guest of honour at the event, Prof Ncube said the sector’s future depended on its ability to serve informal sector workers, women, youth, farmers and small businesses – groups historically locked out of formal financial protection systems.
“Financial protection must not remain the privilege of a few,” he said. “It must become accessible to all Zimbabweans.”
The scale of that challenge is laid bare in the latest industry data. As of the end of 2025, roughly 90 percent of all short-term insurance policies in Zimbabwe were motor insurance policies – a figure that underscores the sector’s deep dependence on compulsory cover and the distance still to travel before meaningful financial protection reaches underserved communities.
Prof Ncube’s remarks came as IPEC announced a landmark education initiative: the donation of insurance and pensions textbooks to more than 2 000 rural schools across the country. The move follows IPEC’s successful lobbying to have insurance and pensions incorporated into Zimbabwe’s new schools curriculum.
Following the 2024 school curricula review, insurance was included as a topic in commerce (Forms One to Four) and commercial studies (Forms Three to Four).
Proceeds from Thursday’s Charity Ball will be directed toward procuring textbooks aligned with that curriculum, specifically covering insurance concepts for secondary school learners.
IPEC is targeting distribution to 2 485 secondary schools in rural areas, aiming to bridge knowledge gaps and equip young Zimbabweans with essential financial literacy from an early age.
IPEC Commissioner Dr Grace Muradzikwa described the initiative as foundational.
“The commission believes that financial education must begin early if we are to build a financially resilient and inclusive society,” she said.
The milestone celebrations were tempered by candid acknowledgement of unresolved grievances. Prof Ncube addressed directly the politically charged issue of pre-2009 insurance and pension value erosion, calling it “one of the most difficult chapters in Zimbabwe’s financial history.”
Millions of Zimbabweans lost the value of long-term savings during the hyperinflation era and subsequent currency transitions — a loss the minister said was not merely financial but had fundamentally corroded public confidence in savings institutions, confidence the sector is still working to rebuild.
He called on IPEC, pension funds, insurers and industry stakeholders to work collaboratively toward implementing a compensation framework once the amended Statutory Instrument 162 of 2023 is gazetted, framing the exercise less as a technical financial correction and more as a matter of dignity and restored trust.
“The compensation exercise is not merely about financial compensation,” Prof Ncube said. “It is fundamentally about restoring public trust and confidence in insurance and pensions as reliable instruments for long-term financial security.”
IPEC’s expanded mandate
Prof Ncube also acknowledged a significant broadening of IPEC’s regulatory authority. Under amendments to the Insurance and Pensions Commission Act, the regulator has been granted oversight of the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) and Medical Aid Schemes, bringing a wider segment of Zimbabwe’s social protection architecture under unified supervision.
The minister pushed back firmly against any reading of tighter regulation as a constraint on institutional growth.
“Strong regulation is not an obstacle to institutional growth,” he said. “On the contrary, strong regulation builds credibility, strengthens confidence and promotes long-term sustainability.”
Both speeches also foregrounded the sector’s strategic weight in Zimbabwe’s broader economic architecture.
Prof Ncube argued that insurance and pensions collectively mobilise the long-term, patient capital required to finance infrastructure, housing, energy, agriculture and industrial development — a role explicitly recognised under Vision 2030 and the National Development Strategy 2.
“Without insurance, economic activity becomes vulnerable,” he said. “Without pensions, long-term savings weaken.
“And without long-term savings, sustainable national development becomes significantly more difficult.”
Dr Muradzikwa noted that IPEC had navigated its two decades alongside some of the most turbulent episodes in Zimbabwe’s economic history, among them hyperinflation, currency transitions and repeated market disruptions.
Those pressures, she said, had paradoxically hardened the Commission’s regulatory resolve rather than diminished it.
IPEC was established in 2006 under the Insurance and Pensions Commission Act, beginning operations with limited resources and a narrow mandate.
It now regulates the country’s insurance, pension and provident fund sectors and, under its expanded remit, will extend oversight to NSSA and medical aid schemes.
Friday’s gala marked the conclusion of a series of anniversary commemorations held throughout the first half of this year.
Peter Tanyanyiwa