Old Mutual Group records ‘strong’ growth

The Old Mutual Group collected N$13.8 billion from customers during the first six months of the year.

These funds were collected from insurance policies.

This is as the group’s gross written premiums grew by 9%, as at 30 June.

Moreover, the company saw strong ‘top-line’ growth across the group, with the market value of investments increasing by 5% to N$1.4 trillion across the group.

Old Mutual Africa Regions managing director Clement Chinaka says profits as a group are also in margins sustained and were resilient, despite a challenging macroeconomic environment across Africa.

In a recent interview with The Namibian, Chinaka said the Old Mutual Group’s results from operations per share rose 95.5%, which is an approximate 0.4% increase.

“This increase is driven quite a lot by the positive impact of the diversification benefits that we enjoy as a group participating in many markets and also the impact of the share buyback programme that we have been going through over the past few years,” he said.

Chinaka said the Africa portfolio consisted of a mixed bag of macros, as the continent faced the highest interest rates in a long time.

He noted that some countries had constrained fisci and currency depreciations, like Malawi, Ghana and Nigeria.

“We also had elevated inflation with a risk of descending into hyperinflation in Malawi and Ghana. But with all that, the African regions posted positive economic growth, with East Africa being the fastest growing,” he said.

Chinaka noted that Namibia has made progress and introduced functions such as the Old Mutual Rewards, with over 15 000 members.

Some of the operations, like Old Mutual Short-Term Insurance, were named the best short-term insurer in the Best of Namibia 2024 campaign.

Old Mutual also launched Old Mutual Protect in Namibia and South Africa, and some products that were on the older systems, such as Greenlight, were migrated at the end of 2023.

“And that is now progressing quite well. The build phase of a new savings and income proposition for both Namibia and South Africa is progressing well. We expect to do a nationwide roll-out in 2025,” he said.

Old Mutual also plans on developing an OM Bank, one of the key strategic initiatives, as the group seeks to drive integrated financial services in the South African market.

Chinaka said the initiative now has Section 17 of the Banks Act approvals, which would allow Old Mutual to proceed to the next critical stage in the process of establishing a bank.

“We have completed technical and operational testing integration into the national payment system in South Africa, and we anticipate to begin a soft launch in the first quarter of 2025. So, this is something that is quite exciting for the group,” he noted.