Poor industrial performance affects insurance sector

Fidelity Life Assurance of Zimbabwe Mr Simon Chapereka has said.
In an interview, he said the sector heavily depended on the performance of other industries.
“As a sector, we depend upon the good performance of other sectors because people will never insure when they do not have money as assurance needs will always come last.
“We belong to the bottom of the list in the industries and customer needs hierarchy hence we have to look upon the growth of other industries for our growth also,” Mr Chapereka said.
He said he was optimistic about the growth of industries next year since the Government was making efforts to promote industrial growth.
“The money allocated in this year’s budget to most of the industries in the country including agriculture might boost industries and I’m sure the little Government is doing will ensure the survival of industry in Zimbabwe.”
He encouraged companies to be resourceful with those resources at their disposal rather than waiting for investors and the Government for assistance.
Mr Chapereka said this year the assurance business was mainly faced with low business turnout as businesses were still to reach confidence level though they have reached the stage of stability.
“According to a report by the Ministry of Finance, the country’s capacity utilisation is still at 54 percent and from this percent one can tell that the country still needs to grow economically in order to build a strong economy,” he said.
He said he believed that they also had a role to play in the building of the nation which is the reason why they are embarking on housing projects to support that.
“We have engaged the ministry of finance to help us achieve our objective through the national housing funds which we will be putting aside so that we give to people as loans for them to construct houses.
“We hope next year will be better than this year in terms of business and its growth because as a sector we strongly depend upon the growth and overall performance of the nation.”