The ManicaPost
Kudzanai Gerede —
Zimbabwe Assurers are hoping for better economic fortunes for the country this year if the sector is to realise growth having encountered a treacherous 2016 owing to a generally subdued business operating environment compounded by cash and liquidity challenges.
Speaking to Business Post in an interview, Zimbabwe Association of Funeral Assurers (ZAFA) general manager Mr Taka Svosve said the sector performance last year was hindered by a gloomy economic environment that saw premiums take a nosedive from the previous years.
He however said results of the sector performance would soon be availed.
“Basically like any other sector in the country, funeral assurers went through several challenges common with the other sectors in the tough operating economy as this one.
“Here we are talking of liquidity challenges and cash shortages but for us it was the company closures which hit us hard as this meant many of our clients could default on premiums,” he said.
Mr Svosve added that the tough economic environment has resulted in stagnation of the sector growth as there were no new players coming aboard.
“We are realising that no new members are coming into the association meaning we are not growing as a sector,” he said.
He also urged players in the sector to be innovative and come up with attractive packages that speak to the level of incomes realised in the country.
“We are however hoping for a better year as we have gone a step further as an industry to come up with an association for various regional assurers associations to integrate and also expand our markets,” he said.
ZAFA was instrumental in co-ordinating with regional funeral assurers associations during the past two years and this has resulted in the ZAFA offices in Harare operating as the regional body’s co-ordinating office.
Speaking to Business Post last year ahead of the formation of the regional body, the ZAFA president said the idea for the co-ordination among regional funeral assurers was to prop up business opportunities and expand markets at a time the local market was depressed.
“Some of our member companies are already having some companies in South Africa for example Doves and Moonlight have informed us they have companies in South Africa in partnership to help repatriate our fellow Zimbabweans and like I said the formation of the Southern Africa Funeral Association is a critical issue that we should carry out for the purposes of making sure whenever you are in Southern Africa there won’t be difficulties in repatriating our fellow countrymen,” he said.
The Africa Funeral Assurers Services Association (AFASA) was formed last year having realized the need for various African assures to cooperate as more and more people are migrating in the region in search for better opportunities.
He said AFASA was still on a recruitment exercise with a membership of 5 national associations so far from South Africa, Cameroon, Kenya, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
AFASA will meet in South Africa from 20-24 May for the annual general conference.
