Sonarwa Life Assurance Company Limited is a public Limited Liability company registered under the laws of Rwanda and licensed by the National Bank of Rwanda to carry out the risk underwriting business of Life Assurance and Pension management. In November 2017, Sonarwa Life became one of the first service providers to have been issued license to be administrators and fund managers of Occupational Pension Schemes by the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR). In May 2017, Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB) became the sole shareholder of Sonarwa Life giving it an opportunity to leverage on its experience in managing pension schemes. Sonarwa Life currently provides Education endowment, Loan protection, Individual Life, individual pension, Group Life and Group pension. Over the last years, the company has registered an increase in policy subscriptions of the various products it is currently selling on the market. As at June 2019, Sonarwa Life has a bigger market share of more than 80% in Group Life and Education Endowment and this is due to massive public awareness campaigns initiated last year; the regular trainings to sales agents and the trust from our customers due to the company’s business ethics said Aurore Mimosa Munyangaju, the Chief Executive Officer. The Education Endowment Plan is a life insurance package subscribed to by the policyholder (a parent or guardian of the child) to cater for the child’s education in future. This investment linked life assurance policy is designed for individuals who want maximum protection for their beneficiaries in the event of the death of the life assured. A Group Life Assurance Plan is also designed to provide ‘’death in service benefits’’ which is paid out in the event of the member’s death while still a member of the group. In this case, the employer pays the totality of the premiums on behalf of the employees or participates up to a certain percentage considered adequate and the balance to be paid by employees themselves. Some other products include loan protection assurance where an individual buys a policy to secure loans and when the borrower passes away or becomes totally disabled, the insurance company comes in to pay the outstanding loan plus interest due. This policy can also cover loss of income by retrenchment for a certain period of time as the borrower gets back on their feet from redundancy at work. Mimosa also stated that internal staff training has also born a dedicated team at Sonarwa Life which has immensely changed the way things are done on day to day basis like improved turn-around time on claims settlement. Sonarwa Life has also embarked on a digital transformation journey which will improve customer satisfaction, reduce risks and improve bottlenecks that exist in the current process and harm the organizations’ efficiency. David Nyangezi, the Head of Corporate Business in Sonarwa Life says that Sonarwa Life will continue to be innovative and introduce new products to the market with a target to offer the best customer service while also becoming a leading life insurance company in Rwanda, not only in Group Life and Education Endowment products but also in other products offered by Sonarwa Life
