eBusiness Weekly
Oliver Kazunga Senior Business Writer
Zimnat Life Assurance, has launched a new life insurance group cover for Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to enable them provide life insurance for their employees.
The group said the latest product, which is called Zimnat SMEs LifeAID, comes at a time when life assurance has become particularly important given the continuing sharp rise in the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases and deaths.
“It is the latest in a series of new products launched by the Zimnat group over the past six months, as the financial services giant continues to roll out innovations despite the challenges of COVID-19,” said Zimnat.
A legal insurance cover and an inflation adjusted funeral plan that also covers Covid-19 deaths, Gadziriro/Lungiselelo funeral plan, are among some of the latest innovations by the group.
“SMEs LifeAID is a financial inclusion scheme that enables small businesses such as retailers employing at least five people to obtain group life assurance cover for their staff members.
“The scheme provides for a lump sum payment of twice the annual salary of a member of staff insured under the scheme in the event of his or her death,” said Zimnat.
In the past small businesses found it difficult to obtain group life assurance cover for their staff owing to the higher costs associated with traditional group cover intended for larger employee schemes.
They were thus unable to provide their staff with this benefit, which larger organisations were able to offer as part of their staff retention strategies.
“With the launch of SMEs LifeAID, SMEs are now able to obtain affordable group cover tailored for the small size of most SMEs, even with as few as five employees,” it said.
Commenting on the launch of the new product, Zimnat Life Assurance Company managing director Mr Workmore Chimweta said SMEs contributed significantly to the country’s economy.
“Zimnat’s purpose is to make life better and we realised that we were not adequately addressing the needs of SMEs, which are a significant contributor to our economy and employ a lot of people in our country.
“Realising that SMEs were not qualifying for Group Life Assurance policies because of their size, we decided to offer a solution through a customised group life cover targeted at small to medium enterprises employing at least five employees so that they could obtain affordable group life cover,” he said.
“In our quest to make life better for all our stakeholders we continuously look for financial solutions that empower everyone to reach their full potential.
“We believe this LifeAID is one way of helping achieve this.
“We are confident that offering SMEs the opportunity to obtain tailored group life insurance cover will in turn help our clients retain some of their best talent, which is key to their growth.”
With the spike in Covid-19 cases and the need to do as much online as possible to avoid unnecessary journeys during the prevailing lockdown, Zimnat has made it easy for SMEs to sign up for SMEs LifeAID.
The diversified financial group operating in Zimbabwe is associated with the Sanlam Group, the largest non-banking financial services group on the continent. Zimnat has four business units, namely Zimnat General Insurance, Zimnat Life Assurance, Zimnat Financial Services and Zimnat Asset Management.
