Johannesburg - Sanlam, the biggest Africa-based insurer, planned to double its share of Kenya’s life insurance market over the next five years by focusing on wealthy individuals and companies expanding into the rest of East Africa.
The insurer wanted to win more corporate customers by using its footprint in at least 15 African countries to offer policies with consistent cover that flowed “seamlessly” across different operations, chief executive Ian Kirk said yesterday.
Sanlam, which has rebranded its Pan Africa Life Insurance unit to Sanlam Kenya, controls about 8 percent of Kenya’s life insurance market and less than 1 percent of the property and casualty market.
It would also target lowincome clients using cellphone technology and was in talks with partners in banking and telecoms, Sanlam Kenya chief executive Mugo Kibati said, without giving more details.
Meanwhile, Santam, the short-term insurance subsidiary of Sanlam, said it had entered the Angolan market by launching a seamless insurance solution, which offered comprehensive risk protection for megaprojects across Africa.
Karl Bishop, the head of niche business at Santam, said: “South Africa is Angola’s strategic trade partner, fourth behind China, the US and France, according to the World Bank. Business opportunities present themselves in the economic activity tied in with the exploitation of the country’s natural resources and the anticipated future economic activity linked to infrastructure project development.”
Angola’s abundance of natural resources has attracted foreign direct investment after the civil war, which destroyed its economy, ended in 2002.
The country is now in a good position to attract foreign investment, which Santam sees as an expansion opportunity.
Opportunity
“Santam’s involvement on the projects is limited to the provision of specialist insurance through our local partner. That opportunity is presented to Santam via the international intermediaries appointed by the state or financiers in the case of privately owned/funded projects... We are able to identify opportunities or threats to clients and, in turn, offer tailor-made solutions in order to mitigate those risks.”
The company said its approach in Angola was to invest in a local insurance partner through Sanlam Emerging Markets.
Santam’s said its primary measure for success in Angola was the subsequent growth in gross premium income and net underwriting result generated from insuring the projects.
Sanlam shares fell 3.14 percent yesterday to close at R66.84 on the JSE.
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