Financial services group, Nico Holdings Limited, continues to spread its wings.
In line with their African growth strategy, the group has expanded to Mozambique, where they have opened another life insurance company—Nico Mozambique Vida – Companhia De Seguros S.A.
Nico Holdings’ managing director Felix Mlusu announced this on Friday at a press briefing, where he said the Malawi Stock Exchange (MSE)-listed company has invested $2 million (about K334 million) into the new company.
Mlusu was optimistic that the expansion into Mozambique is a significant business opportunity for the group considering that the potential of life insurance and pensions business in Mozambique is huge.
“Mozambique’s life insurance penetration is estimated at 0.115 percent which is rather low. Malawi’s life insurance penetration rate is approximated at 1.2 percent. These statistics indicate that the potential of life insurance and pensions in Mozambique is huge.
“The investment into Mozambique, therefore, represents a significant and exciting business opportunity for Nico Holdings given also Mozambique’s real GDP growth which was 7.5 percent for 2011 and 7.8 percent forecasted for 2012,†he said.
He said the new company will offer individual life products, group life insurance products and provide pension funds management.
Nico Holdings has 51 percent shares in the new company while their Mozambican partners, IPS Holdings and Moza Corp combined, have the remaining 49 percent.
The expansion into Mozambique brings the number of countries that Nico is operating in to six.
The group currently has subsidiaries in Uganda trading as Nico Insurance Uganda Limited, Zambia trading as Nico Insurance Zambia Limited, Tanzania as Niko Insurance Tanzania Limited, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi.
