Former SORAS rebrands to Sanlam Rwanda after its acquisition

Rwanda’s insurance provider, Soras Group has officially adopted the Sanlam brand following its acquisition by Sanlam Group, the largest Pan-African non-banking financial company.

Soras Group was founded in 1984 as the first private insurance company in Rwanda; it was offering insurance services categorized under general insurance and life insurance.

Sanlam Group acquired 100% of shares in Soras and Saham Assurances which resulted into the merger of the two companies in Rwanda in March 2019.

Speaking at the press conference announcing the rebrand of Soras Group to Sanlam on November 13, 2019 in Kigali, Birasa Fiacre, CEO Sanlam General Rwanda said it’s a commitment to adopt global best practices and standards in the delivery of non-bank financial solutions.

He said: “Soras has a thirty-year-old heritage of providing its clients with the best insurance services in the country, taking on the Sanlam identity will enable us to scale and cascade to the local market solutions. This re-branding is the perfect platform for us to reaffirm our pledge to our customers that we shall continue to offer them the best insurance solutions.”

Junior Ngulube, the Vice Chairman of Sanlam Pan-Africa said the Group’s vision is to empower the communities it operates in by creating meaningful jobs, upgrading skills and developing the insurance industry.

He highlighted Rwanda’s potential as an important market for Sanlam in Sub-Sahara Africa.

“With Sanlam Rwanda, we have extended our brand and footprint into one of the high potential and growth markets in Africa.” Ngulube said.

Sanlam Rwanda has a market share of approximately 30%, according to its management. It will operate under Sanlam Emerging Markets, part of Sanlam Group’s five business clusters.

Sanlam Group with headquarter in South Africa was established in 1918 as a life insurance company and has become the largest non-banking financial services group in Africa. It operates in over 33 countries on the African continent as well as in Malaysia, the United States, India and Australia.

The figures for 2018 show that Soras has a  total turnover of Rwf28.1billion, a business volume of Rwf23.9billion and assets worth Rwf57.8billion.