Bona Life first established as Bramer Life in 2014 found itself in statutory management in 2015 after one of its shareholders, a Mauritian company ran into legal troubles.
At the time, help came from BPOPF which had set up a P500 million private equity investment fund run by an asset management firm, Capital Management Botswana (CMB).
However, an acrimonious fallout between BPOPF and CMB over ownership of the investment fund as well as an alleged poor business model at Bona Life pushed the life insurer back into statutory management in 2020.
Addressing the media this week, Bona Life CEO Phatsimo Keakabetse said the injection by BPOPF has strengthened their balance sheet.
Keakabetse said while a recent survey conducted by an external firm had shown that the market was wary of returning to Bona Life, the company was confident of regaining its position.
“There is a bit of fear and also a bit of optimism which of course is the right sentiment,” she said in response to BusinessWeek enquiries. “But since coming back to the market, we are seeing so much excitement perhaps cultivated by the environment that we are operating in.”
Before entering its last statutory management, Bona Life was the country’s third-largest life insurer, enjoying healthy patronage from both the public and private sectors. While the company has been regrouping, its competitors have noted a tightening of conditions in the life insurance sector due to COVID-19 and more recently, runaway inflation and interest rates.
Last month, the country’s largest life insurer, Botswana Life, reported that a drop in net premium income due to policy lapses, as clients faced tightening conditions around their personal finances.
Keakabetse said Bona Life’s strategy is centred on the customers and how the company will service them across the country.
“We have built and are still on the way to building platforms centred on the customer. “Our offering is based on understanding and our value proposition is focused on our customers. “Before I sell to you, I want to know as much about you as I can, because I want to sell you a product that is about you. “We sit down and want to understand you as a customer,” she said.
Bona Life boasted a portfolio of over P700 million in policies when the Non-Bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority placed it under statutory management in 2020. This was after the life insurer failed to meet the prudential capital thresholds set by the regulator.
