(Reuters) -South African insurer Santam on Wednesday named industry veteran Tavaziva Madzinga as its chief executive officer, replacing Lizé Lambrechts who is set to retire.
Madzinga joins Santam from Kenya-listed financial services firm Britam and will take the reins in July next year.
His two-decade career includes a 16-year stint at South African insurer Old Mutual and the role of regional chief executive at Swiss Re, where he headed the reinsurance company’s Middle East and Africa as well as the United Kingdom and Ireland businesses.
Santam said separately it was making “good progress” in finalising open claims related to business interruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It had made claim payments of more than 2.7 billion rand ($170.7 million) until end-October.
The company’s commercial and personal intermediated business continued to post low growth in gross written premiums in the ten months to Oct. 31, while its specialist division showed improved growth in the second half of that period.
($1 = 15.8144 rand)
(Reporting by Siddarth S in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Aditya Soni)
