Sanlam Kenya Employees Given Two Weeks To Apply For Early Retirement

Sanlam Kenya employees have been given two weeks to apply for an early retirement scheme which mainly targets staff above 50 years old among other permanent and pensionable employees.

The scheme is part of the insurance firm’s strategy to align the company’s human resource base and reduce its operating costs by more than KES 200 million.

Sanlam Kenya Group Chief executive Patrick Tumbo has expressed concern that the firm’s expenses has grown over time.

The expenses grew by a compounded eight percent from KES 1.4 billion in 2015 to KES 2 billion last year while normalized revenue remained flat over the same period.

“The VER scheme is one of the strategies we are deploying as part of our efforts to trim our total operating costs while gearing the company for enhanced operational efficiencies and agility,” he said.

The firm has 193 staff comprising nine at the group level, 110 in life business and 74 in general business.

Under the terms, the non-bank financial services firm is offering a severance pay equivalent to one month’s salary for every 3 years of service. Successful applicants’ will also be offered compensation for unused leave days.

The firm is laying off its staff despite increased profitability. In its half-year trading results, the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) listed firm posted KES 639.7 million after-tax profit for the six-month period ending June 2019. This was a complete turnaround from KES1.5 billion after-tax loss recorded last year.

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