Nyaradzo Group Boss, Philip Mataranyika, Responds To Debate Around Company's Funeral Benefits

Nyaradzo Group founder and Chief Executive Officer Philip Mataranyika has responded to the debate around the company’s funeral benefits.

Posting on his Facebook page, Mataranyika sought to explain that the company was not giving its clients a raw deal. He wrote:

Just to give perspective to the discussion that has been raging on social media for the past few hours.

I would like to let the public know that we have policies that mature and those that do not because for two reasons, pricing and flexibility.

Over the years, we have had policies that mature and could cover only principal members.

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Because we are an organisation that cares about and understands the African and Zimbabwean culture we introduced a new generation of policies that were flexible and affordable.

The first of those policies was the six-pack whose highest premium for all six is US$57. Because clients saw value in a policy transaction that covered six members of the family including parents from both sides, they opted out of the traditional policies that mature and migrated to the six-pack plan.

The traditional policies almost died as fewer and fewer people signed up for them, but we have kept them on our books. Let me take this opportunity to work out the possible scenarios.

With our six-pack plan, which covers six people of any age the highest premium is US$57 per month. Let’s work it out together so you see what this means. $57×12=$684. Multiply that by say 20 years which is $13680.

Now among those that can be covered under the six-pack plan are parents of both spouses, four of them who may all be above the age of 70 and may die within the twenty-year period.

Assuming the cost of funeral services for each is about US$10000. Multiply that by 4 which gives you US$40000 and you still have the husband and wife to go.

Assuming they both die within the twenty-year period, the cost of service provision goes up to US$60000.

Even if you say the cost of service provision for each of them is US$5000 the total cost of service provision for all is US$30000 in the event they die within the twenty-year period which is a possibility.

That is still more than double the total premium of twenty years. Tell me why anyone thinks we are out to give clients a raw deal.

Even if we work it out at US$4000 per person, the cost of service provision at US$24000 for all four is still more than the total premiums paid.

Remember also that children of the principal member are covered for free and could also die as death doesn’t come only to the aged.