CIC Insurance to offload some shares

Nyirongo: Ownership is has to be member-based

Cooperative Insurance Company (CIC) Africa in Malawi has announced plans to offer potential investors a 60 percent stake in line with the objective of the company as a cooperative insurance firm.

The shares will be offered to members of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (Saccos) and micro finance institutions.

CIC board chairperson Neil Nyirongo said in an interview on Thursday in Blantyre that broadening ownership underscores its commitment to serving an average Malawian.

“Ideally, ownership is supposed to be member-based, capturing cooperatives as underlying owners of the industry because this is a cooperative-based company.

“We realise that the most underserved are the people out there who can only be covered through a cooperative approach,” he said.

CIC, the first cooperative insurance firm in the country, jointly owned by Malawi Union of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (Muscco), Farmers Union of Malawi and CIC Insurance Group Limited of Kenya. It has operated in the country since 2016.

Initially, Muscco and CIC were limited to owning 49 percent stake each with the remaining two percent to be taken up by the public.

Muscco chief executive officer Fumbani Nyangulu said in an interview the three shareholders are ready to let go their shares.

“This is to complement the efforts and the background of our company. We believe that to serve the rural people better, we need to give them a chance to own the company,” he said.

At the inception, the capitalisation of the company saw both firms—CIC Insurance Group Limited and Muscco—making an equal investment to raise amounts above the minimum of K75 million for life insurance and K50 million for general insurance.

In the year ended December 2018, CIC Malawi reported a profit after-tax of K1 billion.