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Sikhulekelani Moyo, Business Reporter
LISTED financial services provider, ZB Financial Holdings (ZBFH), has announced the official launch of its insurance subsidiary, P&C Reinsurance Limited in neighbouring Botswana as part of an intentional and deliberate strategy to grow its footprint in Africa.
In a statement, group chief executive officer, Mr Shepherd Fungura, said ZBFH was motivated to establish its subsidiary in Botswana due to the need to grow in the region and diversify revenue streams.
In doing so, he said the company took note of Botswana’s desire to increase livestock and crop production in its agriculture initiatives and promised to complement with appropriate insurance products for the protection against insurable perils.
Mr Fungura said for ZBFH group, the move is a stepping stone for identifying further growth opportunities in its key areas of specialisation, banking, insurance and investments not only in Botswana but the rest of the continent.
“ZBFH, is proud to announce the official launch of P&C Reinsurance (Pty) Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the group,” he said.
“ZBFH officially launched P&C on 8 November 2022 at an exclusive event in Gaborone, Botswana, which was attended by all the major stakeholders in the market and graced by the Zimbabwean Ambassador to Botswana as well as key Government leaders.
“This move by ZBFH into Botswana is part of an intentional and deliberate strategy that aligns with our vision of being a leading, globally acclaimed financial services firm of choice in Africa that delivers happiness to its customers, employees and other stakeholders.”
Mr Fungura said P&C Reinsurance Company commenced operations in July 2022 and provides short-term reinsurance business in Botswana and the rest of Africa.
“P&C Reinsurance offers a full range of reinsurance products and services including fire, motor, engineering, liabilities, crop and livestock insurance designed to meet the unique coverage and competitive capacities in the facultative and treaty business in the domestic and international markets,” he said.
“The subsidiary will aggressively pursue digitalisation as part of the on-going ‘one digital ZB’ transformation journey.”
The company is convinced this strategy will ensure that its operations are not restricted by physical location while delivering excellent, personalised customer service in line with the brand promise of delivering happiness and the culture of customer centricity.
To this end, ZB said the P&C Reinsurance office is manned by a dynamic, young, professionally qualified team of experts ably led by the general manager, Mr Boas Manzvera.
The team includes experienced and well-exposed local insurance underwriters namely Gofaone Letshwao, Tefo Seakgosing and Matlhogonolo Legae with a combined experience extending more than 30 years covering technical reinsurance, retail insurance, accounting and finance.
Commenting, Boas was quoted as saying: “I am excited about the impact that P&C is already making into the market as we have managed to underwrite some business and we are on target in terms of our numbers.
“The team that I am working with is dynamic, well versed in the market with the requisite experience and professional qualifications,” he said.
“We will be led by our value of excellence in our service delivery which will include efficient turnaround on all our operations. Teamwork will also set us apart as we seek to work hard every day to create happy people. I believe in the ZBFH group mantra of ‘Winning together as one digital ZB’.”
ZBFH is pursuing an aggressive digital transformation programme that has culminated in a massive rebranding and digitisation of processes and procedures among them mobile and internet banking, WhatsApp banking, digital account services and loan application as the entity focuses on a culture of customer centricity. — @SikhulekelaniM1
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