Metropolitan Head on Ghana Visit

Wilhelm van Zyl visits Ghana Metropolitan Holdings head is looking to grow rest-of-Africa stake from 15% to 20%.

The Chief Executive Officer of Metropolitan Holdings Limited, Wilhelm van Zyl addressed a press conference in the Ghanan city of Accra last week to discuss the growth of the insurance company in the country and the direction in which he sees Metropolitan heading in the coming years.

Van Zyl, who heads the South African based insurance company out of its head offices in Belville in the Cape, said that he was very impressed with the first half year performance of Metropolitan Ghana, a joint venture that has managed to achieve double digit growth of 10%.

"I think double digit growth in any market in the financial services at the moment, I will take even though it is the beginning of the year and I think it is a solid foundation," said van Zyl. "You want to grow fast, but you want to have controlled growth, and I think it's important that you get the administrative process right so that it doesn't grow away from you. Again, you are dealing with people's money, people's trust, and you need to be able to deliver on your promise."

Van Zyl's personal business strategy is to keep in contact with all staff that he oversees around the world. The thus embarked on a visit to Ghana in order to meet with the people behind Metropolitan Ghana and familiarize himself with the local industry.

Besides its offices in South Africa and Ghana, Metropolitan Holdings also has interests in several other African countries, including Nigeria, Kenya, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Nambia.

At the press conference, Van Zyl said that Metropolitan Holdings hopes to increase its African portfolio from its present 15% (excluding South Africa) to 20%. In particular, he praised the West African market and said: "West Africa, or markets with larger populations, interesting regulatory reform, I think it's passed through a difficult cycle of political reform a while ago so there is a lot of stability... it is also a market that has demonstrated acceptance of the products that we serve."