Zimbabwe’s insurance industry should aggressively expand into the informal sector, the Insurance and Pensions Commission says, and tap into significant business opportunities that have yet to be explored.
Speaking at the ongoing Southern Africa Insurance Indaba in Victoria Falls, running from November 18 to 21, IPEC director of insurance and microinsurance Ms Sibongile Siwela said the informal economy, which accounts for 76 percent of the economy in Zimbabwe, presents the strongest avenue for increasing national insurance penetration, currently at a low 1,06 percent compared to a regional average of 3 percent.
“There is massive potential for growth of the penetration rate, and there are opportunities to take them to the informal market,” she said.
Ms Siwela said that IPEC, working with the World Bank, had already begun training insurers on developing products targeted at small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and informal operators.
“Going into 2026, we encouraged the industry to focus on the insurance for SMEs, and also the development of relevant products can assist us to grow the penetration rate,” she said.
She added that underserved segments of the economy similarly need attention through the development of products that are relevant and affordable to them.
Ms Siwela said under its 2026-2030 strategy, the commission would reform its regulatory posture under the theme “beyond compliance and regulation for sustainability”.
“We have been receiving feedback; one of them is that we are acting as compliance police. We are just policing the industry and catching violations after they happen. I think we need to be more proactive than reactive as we go into the future,” she said.
She signalled a shift from rigid, checklist-driven supervision to a more modern, risk-based and partnership-oriented model.
“We will be moving from risk-based, where we concern ourselves with the ticking boxes, following rigid processes, and we will then be moving to a risk-based approach.
“We want to collaborate more as we move forward, and we want to partner with the industry; we want to anticipate challenges and come up with innovative solutions,” said Siwela.
She also highlighted that IPEC is prioritising consumer protection, modernisation of regulation, market development and strengthening climate-related insurance frameworks.
“We want to do more of consumer protection, regulatory modernisation, and market development. We want to come up with new areas for developing the insurance industry and focus on climate and sustainability,” she said.
M Siwela also flagged product concentration, particularly in the life sector, as a major concern.
“On strategic issues, there are also pain points that we observed, a lack of product diversification, and we observed that the life sector is mainly focusing on the funeral product. I think there is room to do more in that area,” she said.
She urged insurers to innovate and broaden their product portfolios to make insurance more accessible, attractive and relevant to Zimbabwe’s evolving economic landscape.-herald
