Mzansi and Zimele product standards in South Africa
Mzansi and Zimele product standards in South Africa
17 October, 2011 •Similar Articles
Upscaling mobile-based health insurance in Kenya
Britam and M-TIBA receive Swiss Capacity Building Facility (SCBF) funding to scale up mobile-based health ins...
The complexity of partnering to provide microinsurance
A case study on Turaco and Fenix International in Uganda
Generally, health in...
FSD Africa’s Impact report
Between 2012 and early 2020, FSD Africa...
Managing risks (more) effectively: Rethinking insurance for MSMEs
MSMEs form the backbone of many economies globally and give rise to economic growth, employment and innovatio...
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.