BY NATHAN GUMA
FOR many Zimbabweans, buying insurance can begin with a conversation but end up requiring several more.
A customer looking for medical aid or funeral cover may have to meet an agent, explain their needs, compare different products and go through several rounds of discussions before making a decision.
For South Africa-based Zimbabwean entrepreneur Dennis Chirinda, technology can help solve some of these challenges.
Chirinda, a 2025 Mandela Washington Fellow at the University of Iowa, has developed MedLifeSure, a digital platform that uses artificial intelligence to help customers identify insurance products suited to their needs.
Motivation
His idea is aimed at making insurance more accessible, particularly to people who may be difficult for traditional sales agents to reach.
Instead of starting the process with a face-to-face meeting, customers can use a phone or computer to find out what type of cover may be suitable for them.
“Most of the processes surrounding insurance broking or distribution of general insurance products in Zimbabwe are heavily manual, rely on face-to-face interactions,” Chirinda says.
He says the innovation was also driven by the geographical limitations of human sales agents, whose work can become costly when they have to reach customers in distant areas.
“The challenge was human sales agents are limited in terms of geographical areas they can cover and it can be a huge cost to properly equip a salesman to go into other areas, sometimes their advice would be biased because their target is to maximize commissions at the expense of actually giving a customer the type of coverage that really suits them,” he says.
Chirinda says his exposure to the United States also influenced his thinking, particularly the accelerator programmes supporting innovations in the insurance technology sector.
“Through these innovative ideas such as Medlifesure are quickly adopted and tested in real life environments by bigger insurers causing the industry to keep up with the ever changing technology needs,” he says.
How it works
MedLifeSure uses algorithmic and artificial intelligence features to match customers with medical aid and funeral plan products.
The system collects and analyses information provided by the customer before indicating which products they may qualify for.
Customers can then request a callback to complete the onboarding process with the assistance of a qualified product adviser.
The platform is designed to support both individual and group purchases of medical aid and funeral cover.
“In future, we would like the systems to be able to finalise the transaction itself,” Chirinda says.
Challenges
Chirinda says one of the biggest challenges has been getting insurers to adopt the technology.
“The key challenge comes with onboarding insurers,” he says. “Most have bureaucratic processes and are skeptical of insurance technology that makes product information easily accessible in the market. It’s a culture, especially in the medical aid industry, that benefits and rates are kept hidden from others.”
He believes greater adoption of insurtech could help expand health insurance coverage in Zimbabwe.
“I believe that once medical aid companies begin to open up to more insuretech innovations like MedLifeSure there will be a significant increase in the current health insured percentage of the population from the current 8%.”
Local and Regional Partners
Chirinda says his company, Arkvest, is currently negotiating with potential partners in Zimbabwe and South Africa, including Ecosure Health and Momentum Health.
He says the companies have shown strong interest in onboarding the platform, with negotiations at an advanced stage.
“They are indicating strong interest on onboarding and I can confirm that negotiations are now at advanced stages,” he says.
Chirinda believes the insurance industry still has significant room for technological development, from improving risk assessment and pricing to making it easier for customers to access and manage their insurance.
His long-term ambition is to build AI infrastructure that can help insurance companies assess local risks more efficiently using data.
He says this could also enable insurers to develop products that respond more accurately to the needs of different groups of customers.
