Old Mutual Zimbabwe Group CEO Samuel Matsekiti said Zimbabweans prepare more for death than life, as 76% of all insurance taken out is funeral policies.
Uptake of life policies is low and the figures are from the Insurance and Pensions Authority (IPEC) 2019 report.
Matsekite was speaking at the University of Great Zimbabwe Vice-Chancellor’s Convocation Public Lecture Series on Friday last week.
He also said that apart from funeral politics, there is also a tendency for people to receive medical assistance which means they are more aware of long life and death.
“When you look at the statistics, you see that people are spending more on Medicaid and the reason is because they want to live longer but they are skipping savings to take care of themselves because they are living longer and they are jumping that stage to prepare for death,” Matsekiti said. “They want to be healthy, and they are preparing well.” “So, then they want to know that they will be given a decent burial.”
He stressed the importance of saving from the individual level to the national level, adding that long-term saving and insurance constitute an important part of sustainable economic development.
“We must promote a culture of savings through private or local arrangements, broad-based pooled savings arrangements, strengthening the capital market such as public listings, and issuing other securities for specific projects is part of enabling long-term savings because assets that can then generate returns Visible and accessible to those who are saving. “They can make choices and decisions and improve their savings,” Matsekiti said.
The topic of Matsiket’s presentation was “Long Term Savings, Insurance and Infrastructure Development in Zimbabwe”.
“One risk that people will always be aware of is death. In our insurance sector today, in life insurance premiums when we analyze them, we actually see that there are more funeral premiums than life which means we prepare for this event called death more,” Matsekiti said. “We are preparing to live longer.”
Lloyd Jumbo, public relations director at the Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC), said that according to IPEC’s 2019 baseline survey on insurance and pensions awareness and uptake, about 76% of people with insurance had funeral policies.
He attributed this to the specific benefit characteristics of funeral insurance products and that funeral premiums are relatively cheaper compared to life insurance products.
“This high demand for funeral policies can be attributed to the specific benefit characteristics of funeral insurance products where people with valid policies receive services such as buses, hearses and actual burial of the deceased.
“Another factor may be that funeral premiums are relatively cheaper compared to other life insurance products,” Jumbo said.
On the risk side, there are more funeral products and short-term products rather than savings, said Rutendo Majorembo, managing director of Old Mutual Life Insurance. Masvingo mirror