Zimre Holdings’ Emeritus Expands Operations Into U...

Zimre Holdings’ Emeritus Expands Operations Into Uganda, Tanzania

Audrey Galawu

Assistant Editor

Zimre Holdings Limited’s Emeritus International (Botswana) which serves as the backbone of the group’s Great Africa Trek has commenced exploits into Tanzania, Ghana and Uganda.

In its financial report ended December 31, 2023, the group disclosed that the Botswana entity recorded a 33% growth in business compared to prior year driven by increased regional business support.

ZHL combined its two Botswana reinsurance businesses after changes to the law enabled it to underwrite domestic business.

The two units, Emeritus Reinsurance Botswana and Emeritus Reinsurance International, were combined under EmeritusRe International.

ZHL is the majority shareholder in Emeritus International with a stake of over 50% and the ownership structure allows ZHL to exert significant influence over the operations and strategic direction of the company.

“The group also successfully enhanced the Emeritus Re Mozambique balance sheet with a US$1.5 million capital injection that increased underwriting capacity,” said the group chairman Desmond Matete.

The 2023 operating environment, however, proved to be difficult with ZHL experiencing challenges within the local and regional markets within which the group operates.

Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia recorded subdued financial performances as a result of the impact of high inflation on the cost of living, increase in the debt burden, reduction of fiscal support and, extreme weather events due to climate change.

“Mozambique experienced slow growth in the non-extractive sector continued to slow down, with manufacturing and construction sectors contracting during the reporting year.

“Emeritus Re Malawi on the other hand recorded a marginally lower performance compared to prior year owing to higher claims (Claims ratio was 36% for 2023 relative to 33% in 2022) emanating from agricultural and motor losses.

“Emeritus Re Zambia saw a decrease in total income as a result of a high big risk book which resulted in higher cessions due to capacity constraints.”

Despite a low economic growth in the regional business environment, the group achieved notable local growth in real terms, attributed to its local reinsurance and pension schemes.

In inflation-adjusted terms, the group’s insurance contract revenue experienced a remarkable increase of 140%, reaching ZWL$255.0 billion from ZWL$106.3 billion.

Under historical cost, a growth of 777% was achieved, with the revenue surging from ZWL$16.8 billion to ZWL$147.5 billion compared to the same period in the previous year.

The Zimbabwean reinsurance operations witnessed a marked improvement in claims experience and increased business support from both local and external markets.

Resultantly, insurance revenue grew from ZWL$31.25 billion to ZWL$74.5 billion in 2023 in inflation adjusted terms and from ZWL$4.71 billion to ZWL$47.15 billion under historical cost terms.

In inflation-adjusted terms, the reassurance operations experienced a 113% growth in insurance revenue in 2023, recording ZWL$17 billion compared to ZWL$8 billion in 2022.