Ecocash develops digital assets
Ecocash Holdings says it has made significant strides in the deployment of digital assets in the past year, with the most significant being the Steward Bank core banking system upgrade.
Chief executive, Eddie Chibi said the upgrade has increased the banking system capacity and comes with a whole suite of new banking services and solutions which have begun and will continue to be rolled out over time.
“The banking upgrade follows hot on the heels of a similar upgrade of the EcoCash platform deployed in 2019. We have integrated with ZimSwitch, allowing us to expand our play in the local digital payments’ ecosystem.
“These significant upgrades and integrations, amongst other investments, confirm our long-term interest and commitment in the Fintech space,” he said in the company’s 2022 annual report.
He said as the group continues to build these rails, it is confident it will be able to deliver more value and continuously raise the bar on innovation, convenience, and enhanced product experience for all its customers.
Chibi on insurtech said the businesses also experienced significant growth as the group continued to enhance the value proposition.
“In addition to the core Life Assurance product, we have the following addons; Hospital Cash Back, Personal Accident Cover, EcoSure VAYA Ekhaya, EcoSure Rescue Services, as well as EcoSure Memorial which are all gaining momentum in the market,” he said.
He noted that the loss ratios on the add-ons are lower than the core product. Chibi said during the year, short-term insurance business focused on the enhancement of the digital platform for the motor business, which launched the first user-based insurance product in the local motor insurance sector.
“We have continued to also drive the growth of our non-motor products, focusing on agriculture and other corporate sectors,” he said.
On VAYA Technologies, Chibi said the group continued to support newer business as it drove growth and scale up.
He said during the period, Vaya launched several noteworthy services, which include MARS laboratory tests for Covid-19, Fuel Monitoring solutions and VAYA Smart Security.
“We have sustained enhancements on the VAYA Mobility platform with deployed optimisations including Logistics Services which has opened the platform up to a whole lot more functionality and opportunities.
“We will continue to disrupt and challenge the status quo in the digital services space leveraging on data analytics and artificial intelligence,” said Chibi.
However, group revenue closed the year at $29,9 billion, 26 percent above the financial year 2021 performance of $23,8 billion with the major contribution coming from Fintech (80 percent), Insurtech (14 percent) and VAYA Technologies at 6 percent.-ebusinessweekly
