SOUTH AFRICA – MTN South Africa, a multinational mobile telecommunications company, and Sanlam Personal Finance, financial services group, announced that Sanlam Indie’s InsurTech offering is now available to MTN’s digitally-savvy customers, reports IOL Business Report.

Following the recent announcement of MTN SA and Sanlam’s joint initiative aimed at bringing affordable and convenient InsureTech offerings to a wider range of consumers, the companies have announced the first joint offering that forms as part of this collaboration.

This sees Sanlam Indie, a range of innovative and inclusive financial services, now being made available to MTN’s digitally-savvy customers.

This initiative is one of the first steps being taken to cement MTN’s foothold in fintech in South Africa.

Felix Kamenga, MTN SA Chief Officer of MTN Mobile Financial Services, said, “By harnessing the power of technology, we have made a range of financial services available to our customers anytime and anywhere.

“This was the obvious next step for MTN SA in line with MTN Group’s strategy of driving financial inclusion across the 21 markets it operates in, including South Africa.”

“For Sanlam, this initiative represents a meaningful step in introducing smarter ways to create and protect customers’ wealth through new technologies that create game-changing value for the increasing number of digital-savvy customers.” said Jan Steenkamp, Chief Executive of Strategic Business Development at Sanlam Personal Finance (SPF).

“They need easy, trusted platforms that enable them to meet their insurance needs,”

Previously, Sanlam has invested in creating a new ‘digital first’ set of insurance solutions, called Sanlam Indie.

Through this partnership, MTN will be making this set of solutions available via its digital platforms. 

The offering includes funeral cover, which automatically doubles its cover after two years at no extra cost.

MTN customers can get quotes and complete the purchase of all products offered by Sanlam through their mobile devices connected to the network.

“By collaborating with MTN, we believe that we will be able to reach more customers via the platforms that they are comfortable with, and can tap into the growing digital generation,” says Steenkamp.

The partnership represents a significant collaboration in that both companies share similar objectives of fostering financial inclusion and making financial services available to all.

MTN and Sanlam first announced their plans for a joint initiative in July 2019.

At the announcement the companies said that they will launch a new disruptive insurance product that would see them venturing into funeral cover and other life products through digital platform