Waica Re Zim looks beyond traditional asset classes
Staff Reporter
HARARE, Waica Re Zimbabwe says it is now looking beyond traditional asset classes for investment and is now eyeing the funeral sector as a possible market, Insurance24 has learnt.
Currently, Waica Re is invested heavily in property which ranks first on its portfolio at 40% followed by Agriculture at 27% .
Waica RE CE Wilberforce Machimbidzofa, told Insurance24 on the side-lines of a handover of vehicle, a Honda Fit type, to the Institute Of Insurance of Zimbabwe(IIZ), said the company was now looking into other areas which can add value to its portfolio with its actuaries already looking into the funeral sector.
“Over the one and half years that we have been here, our main concern has been to establish ourselves with the traditional classes but we have also moved to other classes for example into agriculture and going forward we are now trying to look at other areas that we can add value” he said.
He said the funeral sector is one of those areas the company is considering. “We are working with our actuaries to see how we can viably write that business. So we are looking at several other areas where we can add value .As of now we have not started but it’s an area we would want to look at,” he said.
According to the insurance industry regulator, Ipec, 100% of funeral assurers in Zimbabwe do not have reinsurance as a risk management tool.
With the Covid-19 pandemic weighing down on assurers, the risk position of funeral assurers has worsened.
Reinsurance is insurance bought by an insurance or assurance company to cover claims in times of distress while reinsurance risk retention measures planned acceptance of losses by deductibles.
This means that funeral assurers are left exposed to any form of risk. Market watchers have always argued that embracing best practices such as consulting actuaries operating in the life space and taking on proper reinsurance arrangements would improve players’ underwriting capacity.
This will also widen industry players’ knowledge in relation to market dynamism. Machimbidzofa said the company has also done a lot of work in agriculture.
“We have done quite a lot. I might not be able to say much but what I can say is this is the second largest in terms of our portfolio make up. Property is the biggest with about 40%. Agriculture accounts for about 27% of our portfolio,” he said.
