Staff Writer
CBZ Holdings is accelerating its expansion into the regional insurance market as part of a broader strategy to grow an impactful balance sheet to US$2 billion by 2028.
Group chief executive Lawrence Nyazema said in an interview on CNBC Africa on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Nyazema said CBZ, whose balance sheet has grown from about US$1 billion to just over US$1.5 billion, was now three-quarters of the way towards its medium-term target but emphasised that scale alone was not the group’s primary objective.
“We were moving from a billion-US-dollar balance sheet. We are now just above 1.5. We want to get to US$2 billion by 2028,” Nyazema said. “But for us, it’s not just growing the balance sheet. We want the impact of that balance sheet growth.”
As part of that approach, CBZ is prioritising asset-light expansion in insurance and financial services across key African markets, beginning with South Africa.
Nyazema said the group was entering South Africa’s insurance sector, covering both life and short-term insurance, with underwriting activity expected to begin imminently.
“We are going into South Africa in the insurance market, both life insurance and short-term insurance,” he said. “I think we should be underwriting our first business in the next month or so.”
The regional push marks a significant step for the Zimbabwean financial services group, which is also planning to enter Botswana through reinsurance broking, while assessing opportunities in Rwanda and Dubai, the latter focused on asset management.
Nyazema said CBZ was deliberately targeting businesses that do not require heavy capital outlays, citing the high cost and scarcity of capital.
“We are targeting asset-light businesses because capital is not easy to come by, and it’s not cheap to come by,” he said. “But we are saying using what we have is time for us to get into the continent.”
The insurance-led expansion forms part of CBZ’s wider ambition to extend beyond Zimbabwe after decades of limited regional footprint.
“I actually think that as Team Zimbabwe, we should have expanded outside Zimbabwe over the past 50 years,” Nyazema said. “We tried it. Some failed. But at CBZ, we think it’s now our time.”
