Old Mutual celebrates 177th anniversary globally, 10 years in Ghana

Pan-African investment, Old Mutual Group, savings, insurance, and banking group, is celebrating its 177 years of operation globally with the Ghanaian unit also marking its 10th anniversary.

The Ghana unit, which provides insurance and pensions services, has been at the forefront of some of the most innovative insurance and pensions products and services in the country, while showing the way when it comes diversity in the workplace and leveraging technology for business growth.

Tavona Biza, Chief Executive Officer of Old Mutual Ghana, said having operated in Africa for over 176 years, the Old Mutual brand has made a mark as an outstanding and caring brand strongly known for its integrity, sound corporate governance and its contribution towards Africa’s socio-economic development.

“Old Mutual Ghana provides life insurance and pensions solutions to its customers. We offer the best life insurance packages for corporate organizations and help individuals achieve their lifetime financial goals. Old Mutual Ghana is currently made up of Old Mutual Life Assurance Company Limited and Old Mutual Pensions Trust Company Limited,” he added.

Touching on the company’s achievements and technological advances in Ghana over the past 10 years, Mr. Biza said: “Old Mutual has a strong customer led approach to our technology strategy. We have made investments in embedding security, ensuring our systems are always on, the simplification and modernization of our technology, ensuring our skills keep pace with the rapidly changing technology landscape and striving for a culture of innovation.”

He added that the company has also introduced a number of revolutionary products and services into the market, chief amongst them is the Old Mutual Retirement Salary Plan, which is designed to provide a steady cash flow – a retirement salary – for people during their retirement years and to alleviate the fears of outliving their savings. “We stand as the first insurance company to bring out this product,” Mr. Biza stated proudly.

Old Mutual Ghana, he added, as part of its digital strategies to be an innovative business, launched an automated WhatsApp chatbot to handle all customer queries and enquiries.

Diversity and inclusion

With 450 staff across nine locations in the country, Mr. Biza touched on the company’s diverse and inclusive structure which has led to 70percent of its leadership being women, which is higher than corporate Ghana’s average.

“We will continue to drive diversity and inclusion, innovate around product and customer solutions, attract and retain best talents in the market, impacting the Ghanaian market through financial education programmes and investing in technology,” he said as he nods towards a brighter future for the business.

Marking the historic milestone

Rita Adu Boateng, Customer Experience & Marketing Executive at Old Mutual Ghana explained that Old Mutual Ghana, as part of the celebrations in Ghana, will be interacting with the media to share the brand’s rich heritage and experience in the financial service space; embark on a comprehensive financial education in some selected senior high schools, donate items to students after the financial education programme and top it all off with an interactive session with employees on the brand’s 177 years.

Financial Education

Old Mutual On The Money is a Financial Education programme which encourages people to change their financial behaviour and to understand money-related issues and new skills to help maintain positive financial behaviour. With its well-run digital campaign, the financial education programme has reached over 300,000 persons on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.

The campaign led to Old Mutual winning the Best Marketing Campaign of the of the Year at the 4th Ghana Insurance Awards.

Social investment during COVID-19

Old Mutual, during the most difficult period of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been very active in supporting communities and institutions at the frontline. The company donated GH¢150,000 worth of surgical gloves and nose masks to three hospitals in Accra and Kumasi.

“We distributed 1,750 branded nose masks in some parts of Accra (Dansoman, Kaneshie First light, Korle Bu junction, Osu Oxford, Gold House runabout and Accra mall) and customers who visit any of our branches.

We partnered with Vine Christian High on their online E-Learning platform during this COVID-19 pandemic for all customers (for Grade 7 & 8 / JHS1 / 2 students) and rewarded the best five students with cash prizes and branded Old Mutual souvenirs. GH¢1,200 Education policy was given to the overall best performing student,” Ms. Boateng added.

As a digitally inclined brand, Old Mutual was and continues to be very active with social media campaign on how to keep financial stability and impact in the COVID-19 pandemic. “Covid saw an introduction of our hybrid system where employees both work from home and the office intermittently. The introduction of the telesales unit which helped in reaching customers through sales during the lockdown period,” she added.