By JAMES MUYANWA –
A MAURITIAN firm has injected $1.8 million into Zambia’s Diamond General Insurance (DGI) for the acquisition of the majority shareholding in the local insurance company.
Aprica Investment, which was incorporated in Mauritius in March 2014 as an investment holding company in partnership with Swan Insurance, the leader in insurance and investment solutions in Mauritius has acquired about 80-per cent stake in Zambia’s DGI.
Aprica Investment chief executive officer, Andrew Lee, said in Lusaka that his company wanted to grow DGI into one of the top three insurance companies in Zambia and pledged efficiency in the payment of compensation claims.
He said this on the sideline of a cocktail party held in honour of the new shareholders of DGI, Aprica Investments, a subsidiary of Swan Insurance of Mauritius on Wednesday evening.
Aprica is an investment vehicle set up to specifically invest in the insurance sector in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) and already has footprints in Zimbabwe, Rwanda, South Africa and of course Mauritius.
Mr Lee said that Zambia was a major part of the company’s jigsaw puzzle in spreading investment in SSA because of its unique position and good economic climate.
He said that he was aware of the low insurance penetration levels in the Zambian market but that his company would help to raise that by introducing innovative products.
DGI, formerly Cavmont Capital Insurance Corporation Limited (CCICL) is a privately owned short-term insurance company which was incorporated in Zambia in 2001.
Mr Lee assured the workers and management officials at DGI that they would maintain their jobs despite the takeover, as Aprica’s policy was not to destabilise the workforce.
“We do not believe in retrenchments and, therefore, no worker will be retrenched. In any case we have observed that DGI is understaffed and, therefore, we will need to employ a few more people,” he said.
Part of the injected funds would go towards full recapitalisation of the company while the other amounts would be invested in the upgrading of the information technology system.