Cassava Insurtech business revenue grows

Cassava Insurtech business revenue grows

Staff writer

HARARE, Cassava Smartech’s revenue for its Insurtech business grew 131% for the period ended November 30, 2020, compared to Q2 on driven by a strong growth in short term insurance business which registered 165 increase on Q2 revenues.

This was also driven by the companies high end comprehensive diverse product portfolio which span across all industry segments with a specific focus on agriculture.

In a Q3 trading update , Cassava Company secretary, Daniels said reflecting this, in the recent publication by Ipec, the company was placed in the top 10 insurers in Zimbabwe, which is strong recognition for a new entrant that has been in the insurance industry for only two years.

The life business recorded a decline in terms of policies underwriting following the suspension of some Ecocash services for premium payments by community groups.

“The business is in the process of redesigning payment gateways to ensure all customers have access to the flexible payment options that existed before the suspensions of the previous models of payments. The new transaction limits on Ecocash also affected invoices greater than ZWL 5000,” she said.

Daniels said the company also marked a great improvement in banking services in Q3 exiting the period at 81% revenue growth compared to Q3.

This was primarily underpinned by a 166% growth in in interest earning assets from Q2 , as a result of the bank adopting a more aggressive lending strategy targeted at quality borrowers in line with the banks credit risk management framework.

Mobile banking customers registered a 5% growth reflecting a comeback on customer activity.

In the outlook, she said the companies’ drive towards digital transformation for improved efficiency and revenue generation remains its goal with the company continuing to focus on identification and development of opportunities in the market.

These include those that are consistent with providing convenient digital solutions to the changing customer demands without compromising service excellence.

Ecocash revenue registered a growth of 29% from Q2 mainly on the back of a tariff review which became effective in August 2020 but whose full impact was felt in Q3. Active subscribers however declined by 6% between Q2 and Q3.

“The company also launched a self-registration USSD platform which has seen significant uptake in the number of new customer’s subscriptions. We remain positive about a sustained volume and value recover in Q4,” she said.