Sanlam has announced it will reboot its business to become a purpose-led organisation, focused on giving millions of Rwandans the chance to live with 'financial confidence' under the new motto "Live with Confidence’.
In 2014, Sanlam Group, the largest non-banking financial services provider in Africa acquired a 63% interest in Rwanda’s insurer, SORAS.
This marked the start of a fruitful relationship between the South-African based group and SORAS which culminated in a full acquisition in 2018 with Sanlam buying the remaining stake in SORAS.
This effectively made SORAS a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Sanlam Group.
After Sanlam acquired a 100 per cent interest in the Moroccan based insurance group – Saham Finances, the group realized the need for a merger between its two Rwandan subsidiaries – SORAS Assurances and Saham Assurances Rwanda.
The merger was concluded in March 2019.
With the new motto, Sanlam seeks to boost insurance penetration in Rwanda with products that build financial confidence in clients.
Fiacre Birasa, the Chief Executive of Sanlam General in Rwanda said: We want clients to be at the centre of what we do. We want that clients to be confident in what we do for them and continue to live better. We want to satisfy clients and boost insurance penetration to all people including low-income earners. We will train and educate people on financial literacy and on the role of insurance.”
Jean Hodari, Sanlam Life Rwanda Executive, said that in order to raise financial confidence among clients and boost ‘insurance penetration, Sanlam is going to promote the use of ICT to enhance services and be able to reach a big population.
So far, Sanlam has over 250,000 clients in Rwanda.
"With our motto ‘Live with confidence’, we have to pay insurance premiums to our clients on right time. We plan to improve through using ICT and diversify products for our clients where we can reach many people through their smartphones, pay them through the phones,” he said.
The firm has also diversified its strategies to enhance micro-insurance among low-income earners.
"We are working to meet many low income earner through their cooperatives such as farming cooperatives and others. For instance 80 percent of tea farmers have our insurance. We have to sell inclusive products to our clients,” he said.
Paul Hanratty, the CEO of Sanlam Group said that business reboot will entrench group as an African champion.
"The pandemic has placed such a harrowing spotlight on how vulnerable the impoverished are both in our country and across the continent. Everyone deserves an equal chance at living a better life, at inclusion in the mainstream economy. At the intersection of financial inclusion and financial security, you find financial confidence. That is where we will continue to build capacity, across Africa and beyond,” he said.
In the next two to three years, the continent’s largest non-banking finance group plans to catalyse this purpose through an expanded product offering, data and digital transformation, empowerment, building a future-fit culture, innovation and partnerships.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), financial inclusion is synonymous with increased economic growth, reduced income inequality and accelerated GDP growth.
However, globally, more than 1.6 million adults remain unbanked.
Hanratty says true inclusion goes beyond access to banks and credit. "It’s about ensuring the previously marginalized have access to well-functioning financial infrastructure. It also means equipping individuals with the financial confidence to manage their money.”
And by imprinting ‘Live with confidence’ in the DNA of every aspect of our business, from the financial adviser’s meeting with a client to the development of new offerings, we will empower generations to be financially confident, secure and prosperous, he added.
The purpose ‘live with confidence’ will be brought to life through a range of initiatives, including new data- and AI-led innovations such as a Confidence Coach Chat-bot to upskill financial literacy, an Annual Financial Confidence Index to pinpoint regions where capacity building is imperative, and the launch of a financial literacy TV game show, Sanlam Moola-Money in April.
Sydney Mbhele, the Chief Executive of Brand at Sanlam, says the new purpose and rebranding goes beyond ‘beautiful words’.
"It’s an enabler for the business. Sanlam has always had this notion of empowerment at its heart – from its founding mission in 1918 to empower poor Afrikaners to pioneering South Africa’s first BEE transaction in 1993. We are going back to our roots of empowerment and articulating this in a more purposeful way.”
Mbhele says that to live with confidence is a feeling of empowerment that comes from knowing you’re in control of your life.
"Financial confidence gives you a better chance of reaching the goals that matter to you. It’s accessible to everyone, whether you have a lot or a little, irrespective of age and stage. It is a mindset of abundance rather than scarcity. We believe the way you feel about your finances drives how you act. And those actions can have a profound impact on how securely and prosperously you live your life,” she said.
Sanlam Group is a pan-African financial services group listed on the Johannesburg, Namibian and A2X stock exchanges.
The group invests significantly in all the communities of 33 countries in Africa where it operates with different clusters.
Sanlam also has insurance business interests in India, Malaysia and the United Kingdom and has business interests in the USA, Australia, the Philippines, and Lebanon.