President to grace IIZ conference

consolidating growth in financial services”.
Topics to be discussed include securing the relevance of the insurance sector in a changing Zimbabwe, and franchising as a distribution channel for Life Business, Micro-Insurance: insuring the unbanked the African context.
Others include actuarial services, a must-must in insurance, leveraging technology to increase penetration and managing business transformation, are insurance brokers fulfilling a developmental role in the market place, emotional intelligence and the marketing and servicing of short term insurance.
Speakers will include outgoing IIZ president Mr Simon Chapereka, former Old Mutual group chief executive Mr Luke Ngwerume, the general manager for the High Advice at Absa Life Mr Mugove Nyimo and Mr Peter Gross of Microensure, Kenya.
Other speakers are Mr Craig Falconer of Aon — South Africa, Mr Kalpesh Desai of Agile Technologies — India, Mr Colly M. Mata of Lion of Africa, South Africa, Mrs Lydia Jokonya of Success Motivation Institute, Zimbabwe and Mr George Sithole of Real Insurance, Mozambique.
The conference will also see the unveiling of a new IIZ president that will take over from Mr Chapereka.
The conference comes at a time when Government has made a clarion call to the financial services sector to come up with initiatives on micro-finance so as to cater for neglected markets.
In Zimbabwe, the insurance penetration ratio is low as insurance players are serving a small segment of the market with traditional insurance solutions. 
The players are aware of the need to cater for the rest of the market and are in the process of developing competencies to generate suitable insurance solutions for the uninsured market i.e. people in the rural areas and farming communities.
The conference will discuss how other countries have developed appropriate solutions for this market.
The objective of the conference is therefore to equip delegates with capacity to craft strategies and formulate home-grown solutions applicable to the Zimbabwean market.
Senior managers and decision-makers in the insurance industry will attend the conference.
Iyasa and Oliver Mtukudzi will also grace the conference to provide entertainment for delegates.
The IIZ is a professional insurance organisation and an independent examining body for people working in and affiliated to the insurance industry that is registered with the Ministry of Higher Education.
The other core function of IIZ is to promote efficiency and improvement in business practice among its members and the delegates that it trains.
The Institute achieves this by providing a wide range of both academic and training activities including the setting of examinations.
IIZ compares and shares experiences with the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) of the United Kingdom and the Insurance Institute of South Africa.
The IIZ management board is drawn from the Insurance Council of Zimbabwe, the Life Officers Association of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Insurance Brokers’ Association and the Zimbabwe Association of Reinsurance Organisations.
Others include the Zimbabwe Association of Funeral Assurers, the Insurance Institute of Harare and the Insurance Institute of Bulawayo.