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Simon Chapereka

Blessing Bonga Business Reporter
The civil war in South Sudan has significantly slowed Fidelity Life Assurance of Zimbabwe’s plans to penetrate the market in the east African country, an official has said. Fidelity Life co-owns a short-term life business with the National Insurance Company of Sudan.“Our Juba office is still operating as the situation there is safe but obviously the impact has been on our roll-out plan to other provincial cities.

“The civil war, which is confined to areas outside the capital has significantly slowed our penetration into the country,” Fidelity Life Assurance chief executive Mr Simon Chapereka said in an interview yesterday.

The fighting began in Juba on December 15 but quickly spread across the country, with reports of mass killings emerging. The clashes broke out between army units loyal to South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and those supporting ex-vice president Riek Machar.

According to the United Nations, about 400 000 civilians have fled their homes over the past month, many of them to escape a wave of ethnic violence between members of Kiir’s Dinka people — the country’s largest group — and Machar’s Nuer community.

Mr Chapereka said Fidelity Life Assurance was still operating its office in South Sudan and would continue to monitoring the situation closely.

“We are optimistic that the situation will return to normal soon so that we can release the funds for smooth operations,” he added.

The deal between the two firms was signed in July last year after the National Insurance Company of Sudanhad expressed their desire to partner Fidelity as they intended to tap into long-term insurance business.

The joint venture is supposed to see Fidelity’s initial investment into the company targeted at IT infrastructure, motor vehicles and the human resource aspect of the operations while the partnership will be on a 50-50 basis.

Fidelity has in the past partnered with other companies within the African continent having worked with the Kenya National Assurance Company in 2000 after deploying its human resource expertise to bail the company from collapse.

The insurance firm also operates a Malawi-based subsidiary, Vanguard Life Assurance which it acquired in 2005 as it sought to spearhead its life and individual pensions for the group.