Insurance penetration in Zimbabwe is extremely low and insurance products are inaccessible to most of the population. People with low-incomes especially suffer from the lack of access to insurance (or to financial services in general). This situation is common to developing and emerging countries, hence the goal of broadening access to insurance to low-income and vulnerable people has become a global phenomenon over the last decade. Microinsurance is the umbrella term for the insurance innovations that have increased access to insurance and the private sector participation in insuring low-income people.

Zingsure Limited (an insurance franchise platform in Zimbabwe) and the Apostolic Council of Churches of Zimbabwe (ACCZ) formed the partnership InsureCo, whose goal is to set up an insurance company to increase insurance penetration and stimulate wealth creation in Zimbabwe. It is estimated that InsureCo will reach 58% of the country's population, initially providing life insurance, but eventually providing many other types of coverage, notably agricultural, travel and health insurance. Zingsure is set to become Zimbabwe’s largest insurer in the next few years and is scaling rapidly across the region, with other pilot programs operating in Malawi and Zambia. The SCBF has supported Zingsure in Zimbabwe since 2017 in building up financial education capacities and maintains its support as Zingsure expands in other countries.

In the following interview, Marc Tison offers unique insights he gathered through pioneering microinsurance in one of the most difficult markets in the world.

Marc Tison, the interviewee, also gave a presentation at our last Savings and Credit Forum in March 2018 on "Digitalized delivery of financial and non-financial services by SCBF partners". If you are interested in the case study he presented: "Fully digitalised life insurance claims management and settlement process by ZingSure in Zimbabwe" you can find it >> here