Insurance usage in South Africa has for a long time been out of reach of the majority of the low-income population. In 2004, the FinScope survey of financial services usage reported that only 13% of the country’s low-income population had at least one long-term insurance product. The usage figure for the same income category for short-term products was estimated at less than 1%.

To address this, the Mzansi and Zimele product standards were launched in 2006 and 2007 respectively by the short-term and long-term insurance industries. In addition, the Association of Collective Investments also embarked on a similar initiative to increase the level of savings in the low-income space through the development of the Fundisa education savings product.

This 2011 study reviews the performance of these industry initiatives in enhancing access to insurance and savings products within the low-income population in South Africa.