Uhuru Investment Partners, with keen interest in the Ghanaian life insurance sector, has completed its acquisition of a majority stake in Phoenix Life Assurance Company Limited and Ghana Union Assurance Life Company Limited.
The transaction, which began since December 2021 with phoenix Life Insurance, was concluded in February 2022 with the National Insurance Commission. Consequently, it was launched last week at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra and was formally presented to the Ghanaian public as a merger of Phoenix Life Assurance Company and Ghana Union Assurance Company, with Impact Life Insurance Ghana as its new name.
According to Nana Adow Dankwa, a Director of Uhuru Investment Partners – the West African-focused private equity fund with offices in Accra, Lagos and Abidjan, Uhuru has US$181m of committed capital and counts among its investors leading development finance institutions.
Nana Adow Dankwa, while formally presenting the major deal to be audience at the launch, indicated that Phoenix Life Assurance Company and Ghana Union Assurance Life Company have a combined strong capital base and a strong footing in both the micro and group life segment of the market, as well as good geographic coverage across its branch and agent network.
He also pointed out that the new company, Impact Life Company, built on the legacy of GUA Life which has been a pioneer in the Ghanaian insurance market. He also indicated that Impact Life has engaged a crack management team which will be led by Sheriff Abudu to drive the next face of growth.
He said the merging GUA Life will take the best from each business and combine them to create a bigger, stronger, more responsive, more technology-enabled market participant.
“We are determined to build a next generation life insurer more attuned to be involving the needs of our clients. We are much focused on having an impact on our stakeholders – our clients, employees, investors and the larger community we serve,” Nana Adow Dankwa pointed out.
Speaking at the launch, Sheriff Abudu, Chief Executive Officer of the newly merged company, described it as one of the most significant and historic events in Ghana’s life insurance industry. He said for the first time two life insurance companies have come together with their unique strengths to create an unprecedented company that will undoubtedly transform the sector with relentless creativity and innovation.
According to him, previously, it would have been anathema for this to happen. What was rather common and quite the norm, was for a large non-life business to have a life department as part of its operations. Even after the Insurance Act 724, section 26, there was a separation of non-life business; it was the non-life partner that had the full attention and focus of stakeholders.
