Tawanda Musarurwa
ZIMBABWE’S insurance regulator contends that the sector has not delivered fully on its promises to policyholders and is turning to new research to rebuild confidence in a sector scarred by decades of currency turmoil.
This emerged at the inaugural Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC) Research Symposium, where researchers and industry players competed and debated papers on the insurance and pensions sectors, which is expected to yield evidence-based insights to inform IPEC’s role as the Government’s adviser on improving insurance penetration and mobilising savings.
This emerged at the inaugural Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC) Research Symposium, where researchers and industry players debated and competed on papers on the insurance and pensions sectors.
The symposium is expected to yield evidence-based insights to inform IPEC’s role as the Government’s adviser on improving insurance penetration and mobilizing savings.
Speaking on the sidelines of the symposium in Harare earlier today, IPEC Commissioner Dr Grace Muradzikwa said the historical loss of value by policyholders was undermining growth and the sector’s role in mobilising savings.
“The industry has not been able to deliver on the promise,” she said, blaming losses from past investment structures, among other factors.
Ms Grace Mudzingwa, from the African Institute of Biomedical Science and Technology (AiBST), won the competition with “Insuring Zimbabwe’s Future: The Feasibility and Fiscal Case for Mandatory Public Asset Insurance under NDS2”.
Dr Pascal Gubwe, of Great Zimbabwe University, was first runner-up with “Restoring Policyholder Value: A Structural Reform Framework for Protecting Long-Term Insurance Savings Across Currency Transitions in Zimbabwe”.
Mr Noel Tatenda Kamurai, of Midlands State University, was second runner-up with a presentation titled”Structural Agricultural Risk Integration Framework (SARIF): Addressing Risk Management Accountability in Agriculture under NDS2″.
The three were among five papers presented under the theme “Advancing NDS2 through Insurance and Pension Sector Reforms”.
One paper proposed ways of “locking value” to prevent a repeat of past value erosion.
Dr Muradzikwa welcomed the idea but said the harder question was what it would take for insurers to make bold commitments to ring-fence value, and how investments should be structured to honour them.
The stakes are high: direct insurers earned US$170,83 million (ZiG4,41 billion) in insurance revenue in the first half of 2026, 80 percent of it in foreign currency, according to IPEC’s latest short-term insurance sector report.
A second paper urged the Government to insure public assets, which Dr Muradzikwa said aligns with the National Development Strategy 2 (NDS2) and the state’s disaster risk financing plans.
She backed making cover mandatory, starting with state-owned enterprises and cited three fires at Mpilo Hospital and losses expected from the anticipated El Niño as examples of the critical importance of risk cover.
The IPEC report also shows that farming insurance revenue fell 26 percent in the half-year despite El Niño forecasts, signalling potential under-preparedness in the agricultural sector.
Funding is the obstacle, she cautioned. “Is Government able to pay the premium?” she asked, adding that insured assets should eventually free up fiscal space.
Pressed about complaints from companies that claims go unpaid because of insurer liquidity problems, Dr Muradzikwa said IPEC was aware of delays but not of admissible claims that insurers had refused to pay.
The regulator assessed industry liquidity and found that many insurers had piled into real assets as a hedge against currency changes. She said recent macroeconomic stability should make that “an issue of the past”.
IPEC’s report shows that investment property held by direct insurers rose 23 percent to US$50,46 million in the half-year, while equities investment holdings and bonds fell 25 percent to US$24,05 million. Real estate-linked assets made up about 23 percent of total assets, within the 25 percent regulatory limit, though IPEC said the concentration limits liquidity.
About 10 of the 21 direct insurers reported negative working capital and current ratios below 1x. Complaints to IPEC more than doubled to 144 from 66 a year earlier, a 118 percent rise and 117 of them, or 81 percent, concerned delayed claim settlement.
IPEC’s life assurance data points the same way. Investment properties, equities, related-party investments and biological assets made up 70 percent of life insurers’ investment assets, with investment property alone at 27,69 percent of the US$835,15 million asset base.
Life assurance complaints tell a more depressing story. Of the 106 complaints IPEC received in the half-year, 64, or 60 percent, concerned unpaid benefits or claim repudiation, a trend the report calls a growing worry that points to poor claims settlement.
