Africa’s insurance market remains largely untapped, but the biggest players are changing how they chase it. Banking, savings and investments are becoming the gateway to the deeper insurance relationships insurers want.
Bonface Orucho, bird story agency
Africa remains one of the world’s least-insured regions. But as insurers pursue that large untapped market, some of the continent’s biggest players are expanding beyond insurance into banking, savings, investment and asset management.
Sanlam offers the latest example.
Last week, the South African financial-services group announced plans to move into transactional banking, adding everyday banking services to its existing insurance, investment and wealth businesses.
“We are investing heavily in our home market, across the continent and in India as we are confident about the opportunities all these markets represent,” Sanlam Group CEO Paul Hanratty said as the group reported its first-half 2026 results.
The banking move follows regulatory approval for Sanlam to provide transactional banking services through its partnership with GoTyme.
Beta testing is planned for the second half of 2026, with a phased public rollout from the first quarter of 2027.
The move comes as Sanlam’s broader financial-services business continues to grow. Its comparable new business increased 22% to R224 billion (US$13.79 billion) in the six months to June 30, 2026, while net client cash flows rose 64% to R78 billion (US$4.8 billion). Investment management volumes grew 29%, while life insurance new business increased 14%.
Sanlam says it is continuing to deploy capital into high-growth markets and digital platforms as part of its longer-term strategy.
Its expansion into banking also changes the frequency of the customer relationship.
Insurance is often a lower-frequency purchase. Banking, payments and savings create more regular interactions with customers, giving insurers more opportunities to introduce investment, wealth and protection products.
Africa’s insurance gap creates the opening.
The continent recorded US$73.6 billion in insurance premiums in 2024, but insurance penetration was only 2.8%, compared with 6.5% globally, according to the African Insurance Organisation.
The market is also heavily concentrated. Southern Africa accounted for 72.3% of the continent’s premiums, while penetration stood at 1.3% in East Africa, 1.1% in North Africa and 0.7% in both West and Central Africa.
Insurance density tells the same story. Africa generated only US$55.4 in premiums per person in 2024, against US$887 globally, according to the AIO.
For the continent’s biggest insurers, the question is therefore how to reach more customers and build deeper financial relationships with them.
Old Mutual is already testing that model through banking.
The insurer launched OM Bank in 2025 after investing more than R4 billion (about US$246 million) to establish the banking business alongside its insurance, investment and wealth operations. It has committed another R2 billion (about US$123 million) to the rollout during 2026 and 2027, with monthly break-even targeted by 2028.
The bank is already gaining scale.
OM Bank’s transactional banking customer base grew from 284,000 at the end of 2025 to 742,000 by June 2026. Retail deposits rose from R272 million to R1.38 billion (about US$16.7 million to US$85 million).
By August 31, deposits had reached R1.6 billion (about US$98.5 million). Old Mutual expects the customer base to exceed one million by the end of September.
About half of the customer growth came from new customers adopting Old Mutual’s transactional and savings propositions. The rest came from migrating legacy Money Account customers onto the OM Bank platform.
The expansion is however expensive. OM Bank recorded an operating loss of R764 million (about US$47 million) in the first half of 2026, 32% higher than a year earlier.
But Old Mutual says the aim is broader than building another bank.
“We are a bank that, in its infancy, wants to be end-to-end,” Ethel Nyembe, OM Bank’s chief product and innovation officer, told Moneyweb in June.
She said the bank wanted to “embed” itself in customers’ financial needs and habits rather than solve those needs “product per product”.
The proposition brings banking, insurance, investments and everyday financial services into one ecosystem, while daily interactions through the banking platform give the group more opportunities to understand customer needs and respond to them, Nyembe said.
That helps explain the commercial logic behind the expansion. A bank account creates regular contact with a customer. That relationship can then connect the customer to savings, investments, lending, wealth management and insurance.
Prudential is also pursuing a similar strategy without owning a bank.
The insurer’s five remaining African markets cover a population of about 400 million. Annual premium equivalent sales across those markets grew 24% in 2025, with both agency and bancassurance channels recording growth.
Its bancassurance operation works through more than 25 bank partnerships, giving Prudential access to more than 950 branches.
Bancassurance APE grew 34% in 2025, while agency APE increased 30%, according to the company’s results presentation.
Britam offers an East African example of the same broader expansion.
The Kenyan insurer is targeting the acquisition of a financial-services company in the Democratic Republic of Congo by the end of 2026, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.
The planned entry is expected to begin with life and general insurance before expanding into asset management. It would extend Britam’s regional footprint beyond its existing seven African markets.
The company first signalled its interest in the DRC in 2024.
“Entry into DRC is one of the activities that the Board has taken quite seriously. We are looking at the market and have already identified some opportunities,” Group Managing Director and CEO Tom Gitogo said at the company’s 2024 annual general meeting.
Britam is also broadening the range of financial services it offers in its home market.
In June 2026, it launched Britam Trust Services, offering cash and family trust solutions covering property, investments, businesses and cash.
The company said the service expands its financial solutions across the wealth journey, from creation and accumulation to preservation and transfer.
“Our role is to help our customers protect what they have worked hard to build, preserve it with intention, and pass it on with clarity and purpose,” Gitogo said at the launch.
The product mix illustrates how insurers are moving further into customers’ financial lives.
A customer can start with insurance, move into savings and investments, protect assets and eventually plan for wealth transfer.
The wider insurance industry is also being reshaped by consolidation and partnerships.
Sanlam and Allianz have built SanlamAllianz into a major pan-African insurance platform, with Allianz increasing its stake to 49%. Sanlam said regulatory integration of its Moroccan businesses was completed in July 2026, with the joint venture declaring its inaugural dividend three years after its creation.
bird story agency
Useful links for editors:
https://www.sanlam.com/pdf/media-releases/2026/2026-interim-results-media-release.pdf
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-08/old-mutual-profit-drops-us-iran-war-fallout-curbs-investments
https://www.moonstone.co.za/om-bank-grows-rapidly-as-investment-phase-continues/
https://www.moneyweb.co.za/in-depth/old-mutual-group-communications/om-bank-bets-on-simplicity-in-a-complex-market/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
