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Walter Muchinguri Assistant Business Editor
The attainment of independence in 1980 resulted in the emancipation of black Zimbabweans as it opened up opportunities in various sectors of the economy including the insurance sector.

According to Mr Simon Mkondo, who has been in life insurance industry since 1982, prior to the attainment of independence, the insurance sector was dominated by subsidiaries of multinational insurance companies that only employed blacks as agents.

“It was a sector that was seen as a last resort by black people who had failed elsewhere.

“The agents looked after the needs of black civil servants such as teachers and nurses while the more lucrative portfolios were handled by whites.

“The advent of independence opened the sector up to other professionals such teachers as demand for agents increased,” he said.

Mr Mkondo said that this prompted the need to train the agents and this resulted in the recruitment of blacks as trainers as well as underwriters and claims personnel, which had been hitherto been a preserve for whites. Mr Mkondo was the first black graduate trainee at Southampton life.

“This resulted in a thriving market where agents were free to handle any portfolio and this saw some agents earning much more than teachers,” he said.

This, he said led to a few milestones, one of which was the appointment of a renowned insurer, the late Mr Paul Mkondo, as the first black general manager in the insurance industry at Southampton in 1984. Other appointments that followed were that of Mr Victor Muchatuta as chief executive of Southampton Life, Mr Luke Malaba, Mr Samuriwo and Mr Zvorwadza as general managers at Old Mutual, the late Mr Chinamo as general manager at Pearl Insurance.

In the same year, the number of agents from Zimbabwe that were part of the Multimillion Dollar Roundtable, a United States-based organisation for top agents who write insurance across the world, rose to over 20 from just two prior to the country’s independence.

Mr Mkondo said while agents were mostly men, there were some women who also left a mark such as founder and managing director of Securico Ms Divine Ndhlukula and the late Mrs Ruth Mpisaunga, who later joined the management structures at Old Mutual.

Mr Mukondo said it, however, took 24 years for the establishment of the country’s first two indigenous-owned life insurance companies, which unfortunately folded after five years due to the economic challenges brought about by the sanctions imposed on the country by the West.

Today the sector is dominated by black Zimbabweans in all facets, an indication of the benefits that accrued as a result of the country’s independence.