There is no shortage of options for sending money from South Africa to Zimbabwe. With estimates suggesting that at least 3 million Zimbabweans live south of the Limpopo River, you wouldn’t expect anything less.
One of the players in the money transfer game in the lucrative “Zimbabwe-South Africa corridor,” as it’s called, is Sasai Money Transfer.
If you somehow didn’t know, Sasai is a business of Cassava Technologies, which, in turn, is part of the Econet Global Group. So, it’s a Masiyiwa entity if you want to put a face to the company.
Sasai Money Transfer has launched a funeral cover product designed specifically for its Money Transfer Agents in South Africa.
It goes by a name you’re familiar with – EcoSure – because it’s in partnership with Econet Wireless Zimbabwe. So, our dear old Econet Wireless Zimbabwe is spreading its wings beyond our borders. This follows the Zero Fees initiative we talked about earlier this year.
Do remember that Econet has three main segments: the mobile network operations we’re familiar with, the equally well-known mobile money business under the name EcoCash, and the sometimes forgotten Insurance segment.
Under this Insurance segment, they offer funeral and life insurance, as well as short-term insurance. So, it all tracks that Econet would be involved in a funeral cover product.
The funeral cover
The funeral cover is directly linked to an agent’s performance on Sasai Money Transfer services and offers a significant cash benefit of up to $3,000 in the event of a covered agent’s death.
That’s the extent of the details we know so far. We don’t know if the funeral cover is automatic for all Sasai agents or if they need to opt-in. Is there a cost to the agents for this funeral cover, or is it fully subsidized by Sasai?
For the purposes of this discussion, we can assume it’s a good deal for the agents.
Unfortunately, it’s only available for Sasai Money Transfer agents. In a sense, we can think of it as an implicit encouragement for Zimbabweans in South Africa to become Sasai Money Transfer agents to access this benefit.
It’s definitely a huge benefit. I’m sure most of us have had relatives pass away in South Africa, and years later, some families are still dealing with the costs incurred to repatriate them.
As John Ndhlovu, a Sasai Money Transfer agent based in South Africa, put it:
This funeral cover is life-changing for us as Sasai Agents. I’ve seen the distress which comes with death in a foreign land when a friend of mine passed away last year and the family needed to repatriate him back to Zimbabwe for burial. They faced serious challenges trying to raise the required funds and it took them over 2 weeks to finally put together the required cash. It was not a good situation at all
I doubt anyone would argue that this cover wouldn’t be a huge help for most people. On the cover, Gift Noko, Chief Insurance Officer at Econet Insurance, said:
Our goal is not just about providing coverage but also preserving dignity. This funeral cover offers peace of mind, allowing Sasai agents to focus on their work while knowing their families are protected in unforeseen circumstances.
The hope now is that non-agents can get similar cover. It will, of course, have to be structured differently, but Zimbabweans believe in repatriating their dead for some reason, so there will always be a market for such a product.
For now, Sasai says they’ll be extending the cover to Sasai agents in the UK, US, and Australia. They will also cover South Africa-based agents serving markets like Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Kenya, and Zambia.
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