Our study finds that there has been a sizable adoption of the standards by both the long-term and short-term insurance industries. For instance on the long-term side, there is currently a total of ten companies that offer Zimele-compliant products. The take-up figures are also no less impressive. On the long-term side, ASISA reports that a total of 3.5 million Zimele policies had been sold as at December 2010. On the short-term side, take-up is estimated at 30,000 policies up from almost nothing in 2006. The study, however, notes that much would have been gained if both industries had engaged in a more vigorous branding and marketing exercise.
So have these initiatives been successful? In answering this question, we compare the performance of the standards against five inter-related and implied objectives and find that:
- The standards have been successful in facilitating compliance with Financial Sector Charter objectives
- The standards have been successful in assisting companies in reaching Financial Sector Charter access targets
- The standards have catalysed better value and commercially viable products
- The standards have facilitated collective efforts to develop the low-income market
- The standards have established trust in a common brand.
The study concludes by discussing what the main issues are going forward. Specifically, the study argues that the insurance industry, working closely with the Financial Sector Charter and the regulator needs to:
- Recognise and clarify objectives
- Consider broader standards with stricter enforcement
- Build in some flexibility to accommodate learning and variations in business models
- Revisit the targets, scoring and accreditation process
- Implement collective and individual branding exercises
- Seek endorsement from regulators (and government) to assist brand credibilty
- Align standards process with new microinsurance policy statement, Financial Sector Charter and commercial realities
- Develop closer ties between consumer education initiatives and product sales.