MiWay entered the short-term insurance market in 2008 as a greenfields initiative and has grown its client base to over 220 000 with annualised premium income of R1.5-billion. Despite this strong growth, the company is achieving loss ratios of below 60% and an impressive net underwriting margin of just over 26% in the first half of this year. The profit contribution to its parent company, Santam, was close to R50-million for the same period.

Founder and CEO of MiWay, René Otto, says he is pleased with what MiWay has achieved in just over six years in a very competitive market. “Our goal is to build a world-class business. Receiving recognition like the M&G TCRI Award serves as encouragement that we are on the right track. The fact that we are a relatively young company, in a very competitive space, makes this award so much more pleasing. A company’s reputation is after all its most valuable asset.”

Over the last few years, MiWay has scooped numerous accolades including multiple awards in the Deloitte’s Best Company to Work for survey; and best short-term insurer in the Ask Afrika Orange Index Service Awards.

Otto continues, “It is easy to grow, but not so easy to grow profitably. If you add to the mix the challenge of building a strong reputation, the task becomes even more challenging. I believe our strong focus on our core company values, plays an important role in bringing these forces together.”

“I am confident that MiWay’s current book, which consists mainly of short-term personal lines business, can continue to grow profitably with a number of new growth initiatives planned for later this year and early 2015,” concludes Otto.

MiWay is an Authorised Financial Services Provider (Licence no: 33970).